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TRIP TO ALASKA 

^ If avratiuc 

OF WHAT WAS SEEN AND HEARD DURING 



SUMMER CRUISE IN ALASKAN 
WA TERS 



GEORGE WARDMAN 

UNITED STATES TREASURY AGENT AT THE SEAL ISLANDS 



Soll.l.3.0-f> ' 



Sax FRAxnsro 
SAMUEL CARSON & CO. PUBLISHERS 

120 Sutter Street 
BOSTON LEE AND SHEPAKD 

LSS4 



Copyright, 

1884, 

By Samuel Carson. 



All Rights Reserved. 

A TRIP TO ALASKA. 






CONTENTS. 



I. 


San Francisco to Nanaimo 






. 1 


II. 


It Rains 






. 13 


III. 


Following Vancouver's AVake 






22 


TV. 


Canoes and Carved Poles . . 






. 35 


V. 


Wrangel and Sitka .... 






. 46 


VI. 


Sitka and Kadiak 






. 61 


VII. 


Kadiak ......... 






. 65 


VIII. 


The Sjiumagin Islands . . . 






72 


IX. 


Onalaska's Shore 






77 


X. 


Sealskin Sacql'es 






81) 


XI. 


Communistic 






109 


XII. 


The Fur West 






119 


XIII. 


Islands, Rocks, and ^Mummies . 






132 


XIV. 


Our Arctic Relations .... 






144 


XV. 


St. Michael's and the Yukon 






1^6 


XVI. 


Killing the White Whale. . 






165 


XVII. 


Superstitions 






170 


XVIII. 


Dogs and Drivers 






178 


XIX. 


Products of the Yukon Region 






186 


XX. 


The Summer Ckoi* of Seals . 






200 


XXI. 


Aleut Courtship and Marriage 






213 


XXII. 


A Fated Polar Cruiser . . . 






221 


XXIII. 


A Wreck 






226 


XXIV. 


Conclusion 






235 



A TEIP TO ALASKA. 



CHAPTER I. 

SAN FRANCISCO TO NANAIMO. 

"lyrOTWITHSTANDING all that has been 
-'^^ written about xllaska there seems to be 
an amazino- lack of o^eneral information amonsf 
the people of the United States concerning that 
country, its inhabitants, climate, resources, and 
even its extent. People ask, " Is it very cold 
in Alaska?" when there is a range of nearly 
twenty degrees in latitude, reaching from iifty- 
four to seventy-two north and a variation in 
temperature of one hundred and fifty degrees, 
Fahrenheit, between the hottest summer and 
coldest Avinter Aveather. The general idea of 
Alaska is based luion crude notions concerning 
Sitka, and are not much more valuable than 
would have been the notions of a w41d African 
cast away upon Key AYest four hundred years 
ago about the region now knoAvn as the United 
States. 



2 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

In the summer of 1879 the writer obtained 
permission from Hon. John Sherman, at that 
time Secretary of the Treasury, to proceed in 
the United States revenue steamer ''Richard 
Eush," Captain Bailey, on her cruise from San 
Francisco to Sitka, the Fur Seal Ishands, the 
Sea Otter Grounds, and other points in Alas- 
kan waters. The voyage proved exceedingly 
mterestino^, and the author srave an account of 
what he saw and heard to certain newspapers, 
in a desultory way, ])ut he has been led to 
believe that his observations ma}^ be read in a 
more jDermanent form with interest, and he 
hopes with profit, by those who may be in 
search of information concerning Alaska. 

Going from California, or the east, to Sitka, 
the most practical route of travel is by steamer 
from San Francisco. The course is coastwise 
to Cape Flattery, and then up the Straits of 
Fuca and by inland passages to the ol)jective 
point. The interest of the voyage to the 
tourist begins at the mouth of the Straits, 
where the vessel leaves the open sea and enters 
a broad channel with Washington Territory 
upon one hand and Vancouver Island on the 
other. From this pomt to Sitka the scene is 
one of varied interest to the traveller, and quite 
free from the usual discomforts of ocean travel. 



^^^V FRANCISCO TO NANAIMO. 3 

De Fuca, who reported the discovery here of 
a great inland passage to Hudson's Bay or some 
Mediterranean sea, orave a wonderfully imaui- 
native account of the rich and rare products of 
the country and the wealth of the natives, who 
were said to be decorated with gold and silver 
ornaments in great profusion, thus proving 
very conclusively that he knew nothing about 
the countr}^ l)ut had only been mildly en- 
dorsing in 1640 what De Fonte, another alleged 
Spanish navigator, told about as early as 1582. 
This bold liar, whose existence, however, was 
never fully established, related that he had 
found a northwest passage through, in al)out 
latitude fifty, to the Atlantic, along which he 
sailed for three hundred leagues, till he met a 
ship from Boston, commanded by a Captain 
Slade, who gave him not only a succinct ac- 
count of the passage, ]:>ut sold him charts of the 
entire coast on both sides for ten thousand 
dollars. The charts never appeared in print, 
having been mislaid somewhere on board the 
purchaser's ship. It is more than strange the}" 
have never been published. There is no doubt 
that a book was pu1)lished purporting to have 
been written by De Fonte, but the fact that it 
was published in English, l)y an Edinlnirgh 
house, leads to the suspicion that De Fonte 
never existed outside of the print-shop. 



4 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

At all events, though Captain Cook discov- 
ered and named Cape Flatteiy, before being 
barbecued by the Sandwich Islanders, even 
then the fact of the existence of such an open- 
ins: of the sea into the land as the Straits of 
Fuca was doubted. When Captain Vancouver 
arrived off the coast, only a degree below, he 
wrote doubtingly of it, and denied the existence 
of the Columbia River even, after having passed 
its very mouth. He referred to the reports of 
such openings as the probable creations of 
'' closet philosophers." After having passed up 
to Nootka Sound as " one of the openings " to 
Fuca Straits, he dropped down to Cape Flat- 
tery, and to his great astonishment soon found 
himself sailing in an inland sea about fifteen 
miles in width and without bounds to the east- 
ward as far as he could at first ol)serve. It 
was not till the evening of the second day of 
his cruise that he arrived at what proved to be 
the archipelago. 

Captain Vancouver went to work like the 
thorough navigator that he was, when once 
certain that there was something to be investi- 
gated, and he made a complete survey of all 
the inlets, channels, and shoals, not only in the 
Straits proper, but up to the head of Puget 
Sound, with all its ramifications ; and to this 



iiAN FMA^'CI;SCO TO NANAIMO. O 

day, his is the best description of these waters 
extant, although he made his examination in 
1792. His delii>ht on o'ettins: out from the 
stormy, foggy sea over which he had been 
sailing for days and weeks, and passing through 
such scenes as the '^liush"' came upon after the 
fog arose, may be better imagined than d(3- 
scribed, for this region was then in a primitive 
condition of unbroken forests, covering pictur- 
esque hills and snow-cai)ped mountains that rear 
their hoary heads a])ove the envious clouds. 
As we steamed up from the Pacific the mists 
clung about the hillsides till about eleven 
o'clock, when they arose somewhat on the 
northern shore, but clung to Washington Terri- 
tory Avith great persistence till noon. The 
British side from the mouth of the Straits up as 
far as Victoria and beyond is climatically fav- 
ored, having high mountains to break the force 
of the northerly winds, and a southern expo- 
sure sloping down to the water's edge, offering 
every inducement for summer residences and 
picnic grounds. The -American side is more 
given to fogs and raw winds, which sweep 
across the fifteen miles of open water. 

From a purely picturesque point of view this 
country is all that could be desired, and the 
farther one penetrates into the country the 
attractions for the tourist multiply. 



6 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

The town of Victoria is beautifully situated, 
but it is a dead town. It was largely built up 
during the Fraser liiver gold excitement, which 
commenced in 1857, attracting hither thousands 
of miners who a])andoned i^^ood disfs^inofs in Cal- 
ifornia and arrived here in a starving condition, 
but confident of a revival of '49 flush times. 
They were doomed to disappointment and 
extreme suflerino*. Hundreds died of hunirer 
and exposure, but thousands returned to Cali- 
fornia after undero'oino; almost incredible hard- 
ships. A few remained and made "grub" 
wages, but the great expectations proved falla- 
cious, and as the prospects lessened and the 
diggings " petered out," Victoria began to 
decline and went down almost as fast as it 
grew. Rows of houses constructed at great 
cost now stand idle in the half-deserted city, 
which once enjoyed a consideral)le degree of 
commercial prosperity. 

About thirty-iive miles southeastward from 
Victoria, and at the entrance proper to Puget 
Sound, is Port Townsend, the American coun- 
terpart to British Victoria. It is a dilapidated 
place of an easy-going character, celebrated for 
dogs, drinking-shops, and a custom-house. AVe 
did not see Port Townsend, and what I say 
refers only to its general reputation. It ma}^ 



SAN FRANCISCO TO NANAIMO, 7 

be as moral and virtuous a place as a settlement 
of Shakers for aught the author knows person- 
ally. Above Port Townsencl there are a num- 
ber of small cities, the most ambitious at 
present being Seattle and Tacoma, the latter of 
which hopes to be the western terminus of the 
Northern Pacific Railway. 

Passing Victoria we wind sharply around to 
the left between Trial and Discovery Islands, 
finding ourselves in a narrow channel, and we 
leave the Straits, Puget Sound, and Olympian 
Mountains aw^ay to the southward. The pretty 
little farms above and below Victoria all enjoy 
an air of apparent prosperity, green in verdure 
or brown in new-plowed fields, as we pass to 
the left of the once famous San Juan, about 
which we did not want to fight, but would not 
give up, and which, along with other islands 
around it, was awarded to us by good and kind 
King Wilhelm, now Emperor of Germany. 

San Juan was for a \omj: time a bone of con- 
tention between Uncle Sam and John Bull, l)ut 
it was a sort of frontier paradise in its way. 
There were two military encampments upon the 
island, ours on the eastern and the British on 
the western side, both claiming and neither 
daring or caring to exercise civil or criminal 
jurisdiction over it. The troops were friendly 



^ A TRIP TO ALA;sKA. 

enough, and used to meet half way to play base 
ball, cricket, and other national games. As 
neither owned the property in fact, neither 
could or would collect taxes for years ; and 
when it came to trying criminals for such pleas- 
antries as killing people, that was a more deli- 
cate piece of business still, and the consequence 
was a man might murder an entire family and, 
if arrested, prove himself to be an American 
citizen or an English sul^ject ; and it was equal 
to an alibi or a plea of insanity — and much 
cheaper. 

There is one thing, however, that San Juan 
is good for, and that is lime. It is an island of 
limestone, and if enough people would come 
out to this region and build a sufficient number 
of houses to create a demand for it, we might 
put San Juan through lime-kilns, and so get rid 
of it. But unless the Immigration Bounty Bill, 
or some similar bad measure, shall become a 
law, there is no telling when there will be a 
demand for San Juan lime. 

The "San Juan question" was whether the 
main channel from the forty-ninth parallel 
going out to the sea by the way of the Straits 
of Fuca led through the Canal De Haro on that 
side of the island toward Vancouver, or through 
Rosario Straits, on the American side, the main 



SAN FRANCISCO TO NANAIMO. 9 

channel from our western land terminus at the 
forty-ninth parallel being, by the terms of the 
treaty under the Northwestern I^oundary Com- 
mission, determined on as the national water-line. 
Swini^inof around still farther to the left, as 
we pass San Juan, we catch a last glimpse of 
Mount Baker, sixty or seventy miles to the 
southward, covered with snow, and now we 
begin to pass away up the east side of Van- 
couver, but among countless islands which 
divide the waters here into channels, winding 
in and out, a labyrinth of land and water. On 
every side, behind and before, are rugged 
islands rising up out of the sea, and, with few 
exceptions, covered with evergreen trees at the 
tops, while those of a lighter, fresher green 
abound near the bases. The inspiring breeze 
\vhich had helped us along up the Straits died 
away ere this, or is lost to us in the first great 
])end around from Victoria, and the Ijlackened 
canvas of the energetic little steamer has been 
folded away as carefully as clean napkins. The 
air grows warm among these islands shortly 
after noon, and having walked the deck for an 
hour or so, it seemed hke midsummer, while a 
Ihermometer swinging in the open nir over the 
j)ilot-house indicated seventy-six above. Then 
we enter upon one of the most interesting little 



10 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

runs experienced on this trip. This is the pas- 
sage through Active Pass, where for a])Out two 
miles we are led to port and starboard in short, 
.sharp, quick turns, directed by our pilot, like a 
beginner pushed through the bewildering move- 
ments of a contra-dance. 

At every turn new beauties come suddenly 
into view ; new islands, new shapes, new 
scenery, with here and there an Indian rancheria 
or a somewhat civilized-looking shanty nestling 
among the trees. Occasionally a son of the 
forest (and sea) paddles his way along in his 
trusty "dug-out," as proud and independent as 
a Doge of Venice in his gondola ; and it may 
be doubted if ever the Adriatic was so beauti- 
ful as this. The loveliest islands, the most 
invitino^ o'roves, the oreenest mosses and bris^ht- 
est waters are seen everywhere. 

Out of this, nature's pleasure grounds of lake 
and ofrove, w^e emers^e into the Gulf of Georiiia 
— a broad expanse of water stretching away to 
the westward ])e3'ond the horizon. On tlie 
right is a gap in a timbered promontor}^, mark- 
ing the line where the forty-ninth parallel finds 
its jumping-off i)lace in the extreme north- 
western corner of the United States. Bej^ond 
this w^e soon have the mouth of Fraser River on 
our ri<T:ht, and all alonir on that side are snow- 



SAN FRANCISCO TO NANAIMO. 11 

capped mountains. Now we stem up through 
this broad inland sea for Xanaimo with no ob- 
struction in our path, as far as the eye can see. 
We continue steaming up the gulf till, after a 
gorgeous sunset of crimson and gold, and a 
temperature down to fifty, w^e make a long curve 
of six or seven miles, still toward the left, and are 
now heading directly toward our starting point 
on the other side of the island in the mornino:. 

AYe came to anchor in the snui^ little harbor 
of Xanaimo, a town of some eight hundred or 
nine hundred inhabitants, mostly Welsh, who 
gain a livelihood by digging coal. It should be 
said that Nanaimo coal is considered the best on 
the Pacific coast for steaming, for which reason 
it is freighted to all points up as high as Behring 
Straits, and as far south as San Dieiro. The 
town is situated on the eastern side of Van- 
couver's Island, about one hundred and forty 
miles from Cape Flattery, as we came, but 
across the island to the mouth of the Straits 
it is not more than forty or fifty miles. 

Nanaimo is prettilj^ situated, with rising 
wooded hills to the rear and a number of small 
islands lying in front, one of which, by its posi- 
tion and shape, forms a circular slip before the 
town, which, owing to the rise and fall of the 
tide, constitutes a natural dry-dock where ships 



12 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

may be scraped and calking done in perfect 
safety. The enterprising Chinaman is here, 
and a telegraphic wire connects this place with 
Victoria. In spite of all advantages, however, 
the fact is, too much rain falls here. The 
spring is always backward, and the harvest sel- 
dom amounts to anything. It rains four or five 
times a day, altogether too much when it is 
kept up the year round. 

Coal, however, is in good demand, and it is 
said the supply is insufficient to satisfy the 
wants of trade. The coal is run clown in cars 
from the mines to the wharf and dumped 
through chutes on shipl)oard. Here our steamer 
filled all available space, fore and aft, giving 
her the appearance of a regular collier. "With 
rain and coal so mixed as we had it, the 
contracted quarters on board became smaller 
and the neatness less conspicuous. 



CHAPTEE II, 



IT RAINS. 



/^NE day on shipboard in northwestern 
^-^ waters in spring or early summer is 
very much like another ; too much so under 
the circumstances and condition of affairs to be 
pleasant. Suppose the little ^^Kush," one hun- 
dred and ninety tons burden starting out at 
daybreak, after anchoring all night in conse- 
quence of thick weather. With a heavy rain 
all niHit and a dense foo' to thicken the weather, 
it would be destruction to attempt to run 
through the darkness. At daylight there is 
no improvemement so far as the weather is 
concerned, but daylight enables one to see 
land dimly once in a while on either hand. 
Sailing in the open sea and cruising among 
the Alaskan islands or the British Columbia 
archipelago are two" entirely different matters. 
One may be prosecuted at night without 
great risk other than a collision with another 
ship, but when the mariner has islands to the 
right of him and to the left of him, as well 

13 



14 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

as ahead, all enveloped in fog and mist, the 
compass is a poor reliance without sharp eye- 
si£:ht and a knowled^'e of ambuscaded reefs 
and rocks lying in wait for the careless voy- 
ager. But to the start. 

At half past two or three or four o'clock 
in the morning, our captain appears on deck 
with his calm good-natured face and clear blue 
eyes visible beneath the rim of his sou'-wester. 
He is enveloped from neck to heels in an oil- 
skin ^jacket," like an overgrown yellow night- 
shirt. Peeping out below is a pair of rubber 
boots. The rain runs down out of the clouds 
as if the string opening a shower-bath had been 
pulled and the supply of water above was un- 
limited. The rain does not seem to be angry ; 
it is not in a hurry ; it does not try to be irrita- 
ting or severe ; it may not l)e a yery cold rain. 
It is simply a rain running down straight and 
steady as if it was an old and everj-daj^ occur- 
rence — no pretension nor airs — nothing but a 
plain rain attending to its regular dut}" and 
without any feeling in the matter. 

The captain removes his meerschaum and says, 
" Good morning," as mildl}^ and pleasantly as 
the rain streams down. 

You respond and say still further, "It's a 
wet morning." The captain receives this intelli- 



IT RAINS. 15 

gence without any air of surprise, and if he is 
not occupied giving orders about getting under- 
way, he may remark, "It rains very easy in 
this country." 

That 's it exactly. Take it all the way up the 
coast from San Francisco to the Straits of Fuca, 
from Victoria to Sitka, from Sitka to the Seal 
Islands, and you may generally lind it raining 
about as easil}- as it could possibly do if care had 
been taken to make it oil instead of water. 

We get under way as soon after daylight as 
may be compatible a\ ith safety for the steamer. 
The rain slips down unceasingly. Mists shut 
out from view^ everything, unless on one side or 
the other a bank, a shade darker than the clouds, 
may be distinguished by trained eyes. It may 
be an island, a rock, or onl}' a bank of fog 
thicker than the average mist. The captain, 
the officer of the deck, and the pilot say it is 
land, and tell the name of it. Against such an 
array of nautical opinion it would be folly for a 
landsman to contend. Call it land if you will. 
It looks very much as if we had land ahead, too, 
but the engines are steadily working, and we 
may be making eight knots an hour. We run 
through the apparent land ahead. 

The rain continues to slide down, but every- 
thing goes on as quietly and sj^stematically on 



16 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

board as thous:!! this were a writinf^-school. 
The captain paddles around in his long yellow 
gown and softly stepping gum boots till five or 
six o'clock, when he sees everything all right, 
and having his position and bearings beyond a 
doubt, turns in, till breakfast time. The officer 
of the deck, who is also masquerading in sou'- 
wester, oil-skin and rul)ber boots, and the pilot 
similarly arrayed, remain on duty and receive 
the rain which glides down over the rims of 
their rubl)er helmets and oiled armor as if it 
had no more purpose there than lightning on 
an iron-rod to get down and leave no mark. 

At eight bells the officer of the deck goes 
below, being relieved by a brother similarly" 
arrayed, who acts as conductor to the rain for 
the ensuing four hours. 

The pilot is temporarily relieved for break- 
fast b}^ the captain, after Avhich he returns to 
the "house," where he smokes his cigarette and 
gazes out into the fog ahead, port and starboard, 
till dinner. He keeps this up till supper time, 
or till we come to an anchor. The officer of the 
first watch paddles around on the "house" till 
noon, when he is relieved by another of his 
style in dress and manners. After breakfast 
the captain quietly appears on deck again, and 
if tired carrying his water-proof around he goes 



IT RAINS. 17 

into the pilot house and keeps a look out there 
all day. He knows the country quite as well 
as the })ilot, and he keeps the position of the 
vessel strictly. 

Perhaps by noon, if what is called a fine day 
among the islands, a patch of blue al)out as 
large as a postage-stamp may be seen overhead, 
but the fog still presses low down on the water 
all around. A little later it rises in patches, 
but even on a very clear afternoon, with the 
sun visible in the western sky, patches of fog 
will be found roosting in the tree. tops Avhere 
they remain all day, and all night it may be, for 
at dark they still hang around as if loth to go 
up into the cold air of the mountain summits. 
Yet do not think that because the sun comes 
out the rain is over. That makes no difference 
whatever. The rain goes on and attends to its 
business all the same. With the sun shining the 
rain filters down by fits and starts in a desultor}' 
way, like a sprinkling-cart that runs itself out 
and then goes Ijack to the hydrant for another 
supply. This is particularly fine weather for 
this region. 

When the fog does rise, and the clouds l)reak 
away in circumscribed localities, the rugged 
mountain tops thrust themselves up as if they 
had rent the skv. On the British Columbian 



18 .1 TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Islands ahovc the Gulf of Georiiia, snow- 
covered peaks rise from one thousand to six 
thousand feet, almost per})endi(uhirly above 
the water. Their tops are cov 3red with snow, 
but for two or three thousand feet from the 
base they are adorned with thick-growing 
spruce. With mixed weather and scenery the 
prospect is always charming, presenting an 
endless panorama. Still, the great feature of 
the country is water, a])ove and below. 

On the day of our departure from !Xanaimo, 
we sail through fog and mist and rain, up to 
the head of the Gulf of Geors^ia, and thence 
into Discovery Passage. Al^out six miles from 
the entrance to Discovery Passage we come by 
a short turn to Seymour's Narrows. Here 
the tide is forced through a narrow, winding 
channel at from four to six knots an hour. 
There are foaming swirls over the face of the 
rocks, and great eddies caused by meeting cur- 
rents. The Narrows are not more than a pistol 
shot across, and a deviation of a quarter of a 
point from the true channel sends a ship to de- 
struction. Here the contending currents take a 
vessel by the nose and swing her from port to 
starljoard, and from starl)oard to port, as a 
terrier shakes a rat. It ma}^ be doul)ted if the 
Argonautic expedition experienced greater perils 



IT RAINS. Ill 

than are to be met in Seymour Narrows, at the 
mouth of which the bones of the United States 
ship Saranac lie bleaching fathoms down. 

Having safely made our exit from the Nar- 
rows, we continue on through smooth waters, 
with comparatively^ easy curves, till we reach 
Johnstone Straits, when once more we go 
winding a^vay among pretty coves, and at the 
foot of high mountains, covered with an inex- 
haustible crop of firs and spruce which, l\igh 
up, look like green velvet; but the sailing is 
safe, for a hundred fathoms of line will not 
permit the lead to touch bottom here. It has 
the appearance of a broad, smooth river, wind- 
ino- its wav sleepily between hioh mountains 
and steep, rocky cliffs. 

The canoes, or " dug-outs," in the north- 
western waters are as large, sometimes as 
graceful and possibly swifter, than Cleopatra's 
barge. The natives travel in them for weeks 
up and down these inland seas and salty cur- 
rents to trading posts, carrying their furs for 
barter. They take their families at times, as a 
Pennsylvania farmer takes his Avife and daugh- 
ters and stalwart sons in his Conesto2:a wa^on 
to York or Readino*. 

These canoe cruisers paddle or sail ail day 
with the tide, and go into camp wherever they 



20 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

please, resuming their journey on the next 
flood. They fish as they go, and find fresh 
water running down the mountain sides from 
the snow reservoirs above. What ponies and 
the trails of the mountains and valleys are to 
the Indians of the Plains, canoes and inland 
passages among the islands are to the natives of 
British Columbia and Alaska. 

One evening, just after the " Rush " turned a 
short bend in Johnstone Straits, a large canoe 
was sighted oft* the port bow. She was moving 
slowly along and contained several persons. 
As the wind was prettv stift', and the set of the 
tide uncertain, the captain told "Mike," our 
pilot, that he might bear up a trifle so as to 
speak the canoe. As soon as the movement 
became apparent to the natives, all hands began 
to paddle with collegiate energy, and the "dug- 
out" spurted for shore as if with a determina- 
tion to scramble to the toj) of the mountain. 
" Mike," who was long since a trader in these 
waters, at once asserted with all confidence that 
the canoe had whiskey aboard, and as whiskey 
is contraband among the Indians of British 
Columl)ia, the paddlers were fleeing to avoid 
confiscation. As the " Rush'' had no jurisdiction 
in British waters there was no eftbrt to overhaul 
the "dug-out," and as soon as its occupants 



IT RAIN^. 21 

found the chase abandoned, they rested their 
paddles and waved farewell salutes with their 
hats. Occasionally, as often as a dozen times 
in a hundred miles, smoke may be seen rising 
from among the trees in British Columbia along 
the inland passage. Solitary cal)ins of such 
white men as take Indian wives and avIio Jire 
content to live by hunting and tishing, occur at 
unfrequent intervals, and still farther apart are 
Indian villages of wooden houses. Game is 
said to be abundant in the hills, and tish are 
plentiful in the waters. With canoes for trans- 
l)ortation and guns and fishing tackle to secure 
the necessaries of life, these people subsist in 
contentment. The cold is not severe, and the 
natural dampness produced by continuous rain 
is put up with as a blessing from the clouds. 



CHAPTER III. 
FOLLOWING Vancouver's wake. 

QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND, which 
we cross on the way to Sitka, is a dan- 
gerous place. Here, in our very course, in 
1794, Vancouver got the Discovery, his flag- 
ship, upon the rocks one day, and had no 
sooner, by the rising of the tide, floated her 
again, than the Chatham, her consort, went 
upon another reef farther seaward. After a 
day and a night of severe Libor, the Chatham 
was released, having sustained hut compara- 
tively little damage. 

Our own ships in later days have not always 
been so fortunate. The Suwanee, double-ender, 
went to pieces here in 1868, though all on 
board were saved. But in 1873 the steamer 
Georo^e S. Wris^ht struck on some rocks here, 
as is supposed from i)ortions of wreck which 
were found scattered among the islands, and all 
on board were lost. She was ])ound from Sitka 
for San Francisco, and is supposed to have 
struck during: a snow storm. Some bodies 

22 



FOLLOW IN f} VANCOUVER'S WAKE. 23 

were found cast ashore with life preservers on, 
the wearers having evidently perished in the 
water. 

About four years later, a Sound Indian 
turned up who represented that he was the sole 
survivor of the Wright disaster. His story was 
to the effect that he had been a coal-heaver on 
l)oard the lost steamer, and after she struck he 
got into a boat along with the captain, pilot, 
and some soldiers. They made land and built 
a lire, soon after which a party of Indians ap- 
peared and were offered five hundred dollars by 
the captain to take the castaways to Fort Rupert, 
about twenty-five miles to the southward. The 
sole survivor went on to relate that though the 
Indians appeared, for a time, to entertain the 
proposition favorably, they finally concluded to 
kill the whites, which determination was carried 
into execution. This alleged sole survivor 
gave as a reason for not telling his story before, 
that the murderers threatened to kill his father 
if he told anything about it, but his conscience 
finally impelled him to make the revelation. 
It was a good story and it found many believ- 
ers. The accused Indians were arrested by the 
British authorities, and were in a fair way to be 
hanged, when it was proven beyond question 
that the alleged sole survivor was serving a 



24 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

term in the Victoria jail at the time of the 
Wrio^ht disaster. His motive for inventinor the 
charije aofuinst the accused was re venire. 

Crossing Queen Charlotte's Sound we enter 
Fitzhugh's Sound, after passing up which 
about a mile we come upon another interesting 
locality, Safety Cove, where Vancouver an- 
chored his ships for a few days' rest and repair, 
after months of hardships and dangers. Safety 
Cove is about an eighth of a mile across at the 
mouth, and, maintaining nearly an equal width 
all the way, extends back into the mountains 
for a mile. The hills on either side rise precip- 
itously to the height of at least a thousand feet, 
covered with a growth of spruce, pine, and 
cedar that is almost impenetrable. About two- 
thirds of the distance up the Cove, on the north 
side, a stream of water tumbles down the bank 
so conveniently that the breakers in the ship's 
boats may be filled without the men going 
ashore. It is pure, ice-cold water from the top 
of the snow}' mountain. At the head of this 
cove a large stream puts in from a low opening. 
The Cove is as smooth and bright on the surface 
as a mirror, and with the framework of dark 
green surrounding it and the '' Rush " riding in 
tlie centre, the only sign of civilization in this 
provincial wilderness, a lovelier picture could not 



FOLLOWING VANCOUVER'S WAKE. 25 

be conjured hy the liveliest imagination. The 
sun, which did not set till eight o'clock, could 
not be seen in the Cove, but down across Fitz- 
hugli's Sound he glanced his last rays from the 
summits of snow-capped mountains, thro wing- 
pink upon the snow and purple and crimson 
shades among the brown and dark green of hill 
and vale in richest profusion. 

The men not on duty caught a plentiful 
supply of flounders here. Among other hands 
on board the "Rush " were some Japanese boys, 
two of whom were employed in the ward room 
and one in the cabin. The captain's boy Avas 
the lirst to haul up a wonderful tish or reptile 
with spotted skin, long tapering tail, and a full 
set of teeth like a section of an ivory comb. 
The fish, which had no scales, was provided 
with openings for gills under the pectoral fins. 
On the head was a curved sort of horn or clamp 
on a hinge, the outer end of which, concave and 
armed with sharp teeth or points, rested in a 
socket. As the cabin boy raised this horn to 
examine the curiosity, it took the end off his 
finger, and he prosecuted his scientific investi- 
gations no further. 

The doctor could not identify this strange 
tish, which would weigh about four pounds, 
his authorities on ichthyology being silent on 



26 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the subject, but "Mike" says they are called 
" rat fish " a name that would appear to be ap- 
phed in consequence of the peculiar formation 
of tail and teeth. The fish had prominent eyes, 
Sfenerallv dark Ijhie, but in some shades of lig-ht 
a brilliant green. 

At intervals all through these inland waters 
may be seen Indian burial places, if '' burial " is 
a proper word to use in this connection. The 
Indians of British Columbia are cremators, 
and the places where the ashes of their dead are 
deposited are remarkable for the care with 
Avhich they are preserved and decorated. Indian 
sepulchres may be seen, sometimes one or two 
in a place, on a prominent headland, marked 
with circular l)oards or with cloth stretched on 
hoops, looking at the distance of a thousand 
yards, like tai'gets. A flag is occasionally set 
near by as if still more strongly to attract 
attention. 

One of the most remarkable burial places in 
British Columbia, on this route, is in Mc- 
Laughlin's Ba}^ at a Hudson Bay trading port 
called Bella Bella. Here the houses which con- 
tain the sacred ashes of the dead are numerous, 
and about half a dozen spots are marked and 
decorated as the tombs of chiefs. When we 
passed that point on the morning after leaving 



FOLLOWING VANrOUVKR'^ WAKE. 27 

Safety Cove, flags were flying in the cemetery 
as if it Avere Memorial Day, and it is said that 
these decorations are renewed as often as carried 
away or destroyed by the elements. There is also 
quite an extensive Indian village at Bella Bella. 

Game would appear to be scarce hereabouts, 
but it must exist somewhere in the hills, for 
deer skins are sent out on steamers and trading 
vessels. From the deck of the steamer the 
timber on all sides of the islands, as at Safety 
Cove, appears too dense to ofl'er good range for 
deer, yet venison is found in places. After 
o:ettin<i: in amono* the thousands of islands 
between Victoria and this point we have seen 
but few birds or fish. A fin back whale 
preceded us into Seymour's Narrows, as if 
cunningly enticing us to our destruction, dis- 
appearing as soon as we were so far advanced 
as to make return or backout impossible, and 
on the day after a shark skimmed the surface 
contentedly along side, but animal life above 
the surfiice of the waters is not plentiful. 

In August 1792, Vancouver wrote of a point 
on the mainland in latitude fifty-two degrees, 
three minutes as follows : — 

"This rendezvous was about thirty-seven miles from 
the station of the vessels (Safety Cove) in as desolate, 
inhospitable a country as the most melancholy creature 



28 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

could be desirous of inhabiting. The eagle, crow, and 
raven that occasionally had borne us company in onr 
lonely researches visited not these dreary shores. The 
common shell lish, such as muscles, clams, and cockles, 
and the nettle, samphire and other coarse vegetables 
that had been so highly essential to our health and 
maintenance in all our former excursions, were scarcely 
found to exist here; and the ruins of one miserable hut, 
near where we had lodged the preceding night, was the 
only indication we saw that human beings ever re- 
sorted to the country before us." 

The chief attractions of the latter portion of 
our ran one day were amono^ mountains risino: 
abruptly from one to four thousand feet in 
heioht, down which rush roarino: cataracts from 
the melting snows above. ]\Iany of these 
streams fall down the faces of ru2:":ed orranite 
cliffs Avhich cut the water into fine spray and 
mist. In others the water spreads out in a 
thin, smooth sheet like a broad ribbon of white 
satin. Again it appears as spun glass of the 
finest quality. Frequently a foaming torrent 
tumbles over among huge boulders at the 
mouths of canons so low in grade as to aiford 
a chance for salmon to ascend. In such places 
fishing may be prosecuted in season with satis- 
factory results. The sides of the mountains in 
many places show deep scars, bearing silent 
testimony to past land slides, which, for thou- 



FOLLOWING VANCOUVER'S WAKE. 29 

sands of feet in length Jind hundreds of yards in 
breadth, increasing in width as they descended, 
had swept down the forests and stripped the 
thin soil from the rocks which now stand out 
like fleshless bones. 

For purely artistic beauty, however, Gran- 
ville channel exceeds anything yet seen on this 
cruise among the untamed beauties of nature on 
land and water. Imagine an avenue of clear, 
calm water, straight as a transit road live miles 
in length, a quarter of a mile across at the eastern 
end and running down to a tapering point closed 
up completely and thoroughly, as it appears by 
a bold mountain two thousand feet in height. 
The mountains on either side are equally high, 
all making sharp lines, green, low down with 
spruces, which also appear, but scatteringly, on 
the snow-crowned summits. The regularity of 
the channel so far as it is in sight, the varied 
lines of the mountains and the unbroken still- 
ness, except the regular thumping of the 
steamer's engines, altogether form an enchant- 
ing scene. Of course when we get to the 
mountain at the western terminus, which we 
do as daylight gives way to darkness, there is a 
passage out, and at a quarter past nine P. M. 
we anchor in seventeen fathoms for the night, 
in Lowe's Inlet, and go to sleep to the droning 



oO A TRIP TO ALA,^KA. 

sound of the cataract on shore, into which an 
arrow might be shot from the deck of the 
steamer. 

On the next morning we obtain our first 
view of Alaska, Cape Fox being visible for a 
short time. In the afternoon v.e let 2:0 anchor 
at Port Simpson, still in British Columbia. 

Of the character of the country through which 
we had been passing for a week, no person can 
form any conception from ordinary maps. AVe 
had been spending days and travelling hundreds 
of miles among islands innumerable, and chan- 
nels in every direction, narrow sometimes, so 
that a pistol ball might be iired across, and yet 
hundreds of fathoms in depth. There are thou- 
sands of passages into which we do not enter, 
because our object is to pursue the most direct 
course through the country, and, doubtless, 
many of them have been only su})eriicially sur- 
veyed. Their number and magnitude in some 
cases, as the Straits of Fuca, Gulf of Georgia, 
Queen Charlotte's Sound and others, are won- 
derful. It seems as if the Almighty had here 
shattered the mountains with an omnipotent 
sledsre for a thousand miles and turned the 

o 

waters of the sea to flow among the fragments. 
It is a wonderful country to look at, and if 
situated so as to be available for Sunday excur- 



FOLLOWING VANCOUVER'S WAKE. 31 

sions from a great city or a nimiher of great 
cities, it might he put to some protitahle use. 
For any other purpose it has very few, if any 
recommendations at present. The timl)er grows 
on a thin, skinny soil at hest, and often only 
holds on hy roots in crevices of the rocks. The 
climate is wet, cold, and cheerless, and vegeta- 
tion, though it may grow, does not mature. 
Even the greater portion of the timher seems to 
die young. The country has attractions for the 
artist and possil)ly for the scientist, but it will 
probably remain in possession of the Indians 
for many generations, if not for all time. Jus- 
tice would now seem to require that the Indians 
should be permitted to remain in undisturl)ed 
possession of these islands of British Columbia. 
Of course, if valuable mineral or other products 
should l)e discovered here that would be quite a 
different thing. 

Port Simpson is a Hudson Bay trading post 
where steamers plying between Victoria and 
Wrangel or Sitka sometimes touch. There is 
no post-office here, and letters are only for- 
warded as uncertain opportunities permit. It 
is like many another settlement which we have 
seen during the |)ast week. One of the most 
remarkal)le of these is Duncan's Mission at 
Metlahcatlah in Chatham's Sound, about fifteen 
miles from Port Simpson. 



32 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

In 1858 Duncan was sent to Port Simpson as 
a missionary, and soon afterward, having some 
disagreement with the Hudson Bay Company's 
agent at that place, he moved down to ]\Ietlah- 
cathdi, intending to take all of the Indians with 
him, but the company brought Rev. ]Mr. 
Crosby out and saved about half of them. 
Duncan, however, built up a settlement and 
prospered in more ways than one. He has a 
snug town in which there is a church, a semi- 
nary, a jail, and a great many adjuncts of 
civilization, if not all the modern improvements. 
He is a magistrate, and has Indian constables to 
execute his warrants and enforce his decrees. 
He will not tolerate whiskey or outside traders 
within his jurisdiction, but does some outside 
trading himself. It is reported that he gets the 
better of Uncle Sam to the extent of twenty 
thousand dollars or thirty thousand dollars a 
3^ear h\ sending his Indians with goods up some 
of the inland passages to trade with the Alaskan 
natives, by which smuggling our revenues are 
made to suffer. At all events, whether true or 
fiilse, Duncan has the reputation of being a 
prosperous and successful missionary. 

"Mike," our pilot, attempted to land some 
whiskey at Metlahcatlah some years ago, l)efore 
he experienced a change, but he says Duncan's 



FOLLOWING VANCOUVER'S WAKE. 33 

police ran him out. Possi])ly if he could have 
got ashore there Avith enough whiskey to run 
the place for three days, the mission might 
have been wiped out and Duncan would have 
been, before this, seeking proselytes among 
nations further removed from the refining influ- 
ence of civilization, or in some secret nook 
unknown to the alcoholic corsair of the western 
isles. As it is, both "Mike" and Duncan are 
now good citizens, and if the missionary is the 
richer in this world's goods the pilot is an 
inexhaustible mine of interesting reminiscences 
of contraband cruisings l^efore he experienced a 
change. 

Port Simpson was established by the Hudson 
Bay Company in 1829, and has seen many wars 
with the native tribes, but it still lives — an 
important post of the company. It is now a 
general rendezvous for various tribes, but is 
located on the lands of the Tongass. The 
objects of greatest interest here at the present 
time are "potlatch" poles, Avhich average about 
twenty feet in height, and are carved near the 
base in grotesque figures of monsters bearing 
columns upon their heads. Some of the col- 
umns have the figures of beasts set vertically 
on top, but the prevailing idea is of monstrous 
faces carved below. These have an idolatrous 



34 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

air about them, and are not in favor with Mr. 
Crosby, the missionary, Avho is having them 
removed as fast as possible. In a short time 
they will all have disappeared and carried Avith 
I hem whatever of traditional meaning they may 
have for the Aborigines, who will also disappear 
in a few generations, or would under American 
influences. It is the policy of the Hudson Bay 
Company, how^ever, to preserve the Indian, for 
on his labors that corporation thrives. 



CHAPTER lY. 

CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 

nnHE first iinchorage made by the "Rush" in 
-■- Alaskan waters, on this cruise, was in 
Karta or Kassan Bay, before the viUage of the 
Indian Chief Scowl, on Prince of Wales Island. 
This is one of the most interesting Indian vil- 
lages on this coast for several reasons, most 
prominent of which are that Scowl is chief of 
all the Hyda Indians, headquarters of the tribe 
beino^ on Prince of Wales, and his villao^e con- 
tains the most extensive and elaborately carved 
poles, of which brief mention was made in the 
preceding chapter. 

Old Scowd is now totall}' blind and nearly 
deaf, but he appears to be the remains of a once 
physically powerful man, and he long wielded 
unquestioned authority in his w^ideh^ extended 
tribe. The Hydas are great hunters and fishers, 
and at the time of our visit the chief village 
was almost deserted, the inhabitants being 
away seal hunting out beyond Queen Charlotte's 
Island. 

35 



36 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

These Indians of the Northwest coast differ 
as much in appearance as in customs from those 
of the plains. The buffalo eaters are a hardy 
race of strong, muscular men, with the piercing 
eyes, high clieek-])ones, and aquiline noses of a 
Avarlike people. The Ply das, Tsimpsiens, Ton- 
gass, and others of this res^ion, from Pusret 
Sound to Sitka, have round, fat faces with dull 
expression, indicative of anything but bravery 
and ambition. The Sioux live principally on 
buffalo meat, and take an abundance of rough 
exercise on horseback over mountain and plain. 
The Ilydas and their kind paddle or drift 
around with the tides in canoes, live on fish, 
and become oily and lazy looking. The habits 
and diet of both classes reveal themselves in 
form and face, the meat eaters being tall and 
lean, as a rule, the fish eaters fat and squatty. 

The canoe is the sole means of locomotion 
here. All the ''trails" are h\ water, and the 
canoes of this people are wonderful specimens 
of savage naval architecture. The Hydas make 
the best and largest canoes in this section of the 
coast. At Port Simpson "dug-outs," from 
forty to fifty feet in length, are quite common, 
and some are much longer. One taken to the 
Centennial was eighty feet in length and so 
deep that men sitting in it were concealed from 



CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 37 

view u}) to their shoulders. The canoes are 
dug and burned out, each being constructed of 
a cedar log, which, after the excavation, is 
spread open till thoroughly dried in that posi- 
tion. They are all constructed on one model, 
being a simple curve at the stern, the prow 
sticking sharply from the Avater and projecting 
upward and outward in a graceful form, after 
the style of ancient Roman and Grecian war 
galleys as Ave see them pictured in books. 

With ten, fifteen, twenty or forty paddles on 
a side (the Centennial canoe carried the latter 
number Avhen fully manned), these "dug-outs" 
are propelled through the water at a rate equal 
to tAvo miles for any ship boat's one. Port 
Simpson is headquarters for the canoe trade, 
Avhole fleets being brought in at times for sale 
as at fairs or markets in great commercial cities. 
At times a fleet of new ''dug-outs" go paddling 
into the harbor Avhere they are to be sold, in 
the form of a great crescent Avithin the bay, and 
are brought to the beach amid chanting and 
shoutino^ and o^eneral demonstrations, intended 
to give importance to the occasion. 

These sales attract Indians from the surround- 
ing country to Port Simpson Avhere consideral)le 
property changes hands in consequence, some 
canoes selling as high as $100 in blankets and 



38 A TRIP TO ALASKA, 

other commodities. They represent a vast 
amount of patient hi])or, and skill, to a certain 
extent. They are swift, graceful, and buo^^ant, 
but are liable to split hy the force of a blow or 
under a severe strain. 

A few years ago, ]Mr. Williamson, who was 
at that time agent for the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, at Port Simpson, Avent over to Queen 
Charlotte's Island, about forty miles distant, 
making the outward vo3^age in safety. In 
returning, however, he experienced heavy 
weather. His crew consisted of live Indians, 
and when about ten miles out the}- turned and 
attempted to go back to the island. The sea 
became rougher with each l)last of the gale, and 
finally, growing desperate, the voyagers hoisted 
sail and concluded to try to run in as soon as 
possible, delay seeming to make their situation 
more perilous each instant. While thus 1)uffet- 
ing the waves the canoe split from stem to 
stern, and, of course, all of its occupants were 
thrown into the sea. 

Even under these circumstances, while being 
bufteted by tremendous billows, the Indians 
succeeded in passing some kelp cordage around 
the wreck, and thus formed a raft wdiich held 
all up. The cold, however, was so severe, 
with the drenching water, that Mr. Williamson 



CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 39 

soon succum])ed, and laying oft' his bat, oftered 
a short prayer and slid into the sea. One by 
one the crew departed in a similar manner, ex- 
cept a solitary Indian, who, after four days, 
reached shore in a famishino- condition. 

Yet the Indians on the coast venture out 
tliirty to forty miles from land in their canoes 
when hunting the fur seal, Avhich, when travel- 
ing north, keeps well out to sea. 

At Karta, ''potlatcb" poles from a foot to 
four feet in diameter at the base, and from fif- 
teen to sixty and even seventy-five feet in 
height, have been erected to commemorate one 
or another important event in the history of a 
family. At Port Simpson a pole with a carved 
figure of a wolf, life size, on top and a veritable 
gun strapi:)ed near the efi&gy, was erected in 
memory of a hunter who perished while in the 
mountains on one of his expeditions, during a 
severe snow-storm. Other poles commemorate 
similar events ; but the greater number represent 
quite another sort of affair which I believe is 
peculiar to the Indians of this coast. 

It is, or Avas, the custom among the Hydas, 
on the occasion of the erection of a new house, 
and all here, as at Port Simpson, live in wooden 
l)uildings, to give what might ])e called a "warm- 
ing." Upon taking possession of the new 



40 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

premises the proprietor celebrates the event by 
a "potlatch" feast (Chinock ^vord for gift), and 
a carved pole is erected to mark the event. 
One of the greatest things a Hj'da can do is to 
give away more than his neighbors. The gifts 
consist principally of l)huikets, which are dis- 
tributed by the hundred when they can be ob- 
tained, and it is not uncommon for these Indians 
to bestow all of their worldly goods in that 
manner, leaving them poor forever afterward. 
For carving the poles twent}', thirty, and as 
high as fifty blankets, worth al)out two dollars 
each, have been paid. 

Kank and title among these Indians descend 
not in a line from father to son, but from uncle 
to nephew, a system of nepotism calculated to 
secure rotation in office. In order that a 
nephcAv may succeed to the honors and dignities 
of the mother's brother he must, on taking his 
place at the head of the tribe, or familv, dis- 
tribute or pay to his uncle's surviving relatives 
goods of a value equal to those given on the 
occasion of the erection of the family tree. 
Any young man of spirit would naturally be 
urged and stimulated for the accomplishment of 
this purpose to put forth every exertion to ob- 
tain the amount of wealth necessary to secure 
his title. And this has led, in late years, to the 



CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 41 

adoption of means, not creditable to the Hyda 
man nor elevatino' to the woman over whom he 
exercised complete control. It was with a view 
of putting a stop to these demoralizing prac- 
tices that the missionaries have discouraged the 
erection and preservation of the "potlatch" 
poles. If the heir apparent fails to distrilnite a 
sufficient quantity of goods to entitle him to 
take rank as the head of the family, some other 
member, more successful, or more ambitious, 
may produce the blankets and walk off with 
the honors. 

At Port Simpson and at Metkihcatlah the 
missionaries have effected encouraging results 
and achieved considerable success among the 
Indians, but old Scowd, chief of the Hydas, 
frowns down all preachers who approach his 
possessions. Two preachers attempted to make 
a beginning among the Hydas a few years ago, 
])ut they were politely informed that if the}^ did 
not go away they would be killed. They did 
not remain. Consequentlj^ Scowl's people not 
only retain their '^potlatch" poles, but they 
enjoy some other privileges which no conscien- 
tious missionary could approve, and at least one 
of which is not in harmony with the spirit of 
our laws since the war. 

The Hydas own slaves, and have owned 



42 A TlUr TO ALASKA. 

them since the memory of man runneth not to 
the contrary. The original stock of shives 
generally consisted of children captured in Avar- 
fare, Avhose posterity remained in a condition 
of l)ondage. Slaves have been sold by these 
more northern tribes to the Indians of Puget 
Sound, and the power over such chattels has 
been so complete that they have Ijeen killed out 
of compliment to or regard for a dying master, 
and the women have been leased out for evil 
puri)()scs. Old Scowl has slaves now, and, as 
he is believed to be on his last legs, the wisest 
thing they could do Avould be to emigrate to 
the land of the free, farther east. 

When a Hyda chief dies it is supposed he 
will need servants in the felicitous fishing fields, 
and that the best way to secure them is to take 
them Avith him. The records of the Hudson 
Bay Com})anv at Port Simpson show, that in 
1842 on one occasion the agent visited a dying- 
man of some note and entered the place where 
he lay just in time to find him engaged in an 
attemi)t to strangle his nephew. The agent 
rescued the boy and took him into the [jost, 
where he was kept till after the dei)arture of 
the spirit of his kingly uncle. Then came the 
mother of the lad and demanded compensation 
of the company for the anno^^ance and incon- 



CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 43 

venience to which her departed ])rother would 
be put in the other world, by reason of not 
having the spirit of her son servilely attendant 
upon his ghostly majesty. The company paid 
for that interference in family affairs. 

Rude as these people may be considered by 
persons of artificial culture, it must ])e said in 
their favor that all men have a commercial value 
in their ej'es, and accidental insurance is one of 
the things that they believe in. If one or 
twenty of these Indians are hired for la])or they 
must be returned or paid for, some costing as 
nmch as one hundred dollars. ]Many years ago, 
when the Russians were in })ossession of Alaska, 
a Frenchman came out to open up the fur trade 
and add to the commercial importance of his 
brilliant nation. He hired a lot of Sitka In- 
dians to hunt seals and moved down about 
Queen Charlotte's to commence operations. He 
put his Indians ashore there, where twenty- 
three of them w^ere killed by the Hydas and 
nine in another place. When he returned to 
Sitka he paid two hundred dollars apiece for 
the missino^ Indians, accordins^ to contract, and 
had a grand total of sixty-three sealskins Avortli 
about live dollars each as the result of his 
cruise. Then he sailed for La Belle France 
with rather a poor opinion of the country. 



44 A TRIP TO ALA.^KA. 

The women of these tril)es have their foibles, 
as other women have, and as they differ some- 
what from what appears farther east and south- 
ward, it may l)e well to mention some items. 
They do not parade to any great extent in 
sealskin sacques or other fine fur, a fact which 
may be due, at least in part, to early teachings. 
The Hudson Bay Company, which first intro- 
duced manners, things, and ideas of civilization 
among these Indians, forbade their employes 
wearing furs under an}" circumstances, as it was 
found if they made use of such articles in their 
wearing apparel the Indians would imitate 
them, and good furs would thus be wasted as it 
w^ere, and there would be nothing in the country- 
worth trading for. And now calico and blan- 
kets are more worn by Hyda women than 
furs. 

What they lack in skins, howe^'er, they make 
up in jewelry. They wear rings upon their 
fingers, in their ears, and in their noses. But 
they have another sort of ornament Avhich is 
peculiar to the squaws on this coast. On ar- 
riving at the age of womanhood they pierce the 
lower lip, through which they thrust a piece of 
ivory or a silver pin about an inch long and as 
thick as a knitting needle. Inside the mouth 
the end of the pin is fastened to a plate which 



CANOES AND CARVED POLES. 45 

rests before the gum. This pin is increased in 
thickness as the lady advances in years, till it 
h)oks as if the entire lip had been torn out and 
Iho hole stopped by a bone. The women are 
industrious, as Indian Avonien generally are, 
cleaning the tish, curing skins, hewing wood, 
and drawing water. They make a cordage of 
the fibre of nettles (which weed they use for 
"greens" also), and out of kelp, which is found 
floatino: all throuo-h these w^aters. Mattino- is 
made of a kind of grass, and one species of 
seaweed is dried in huge blocks a foot square 
and two to three inches in thickness, forming a 
staple article of food. 

On the whole, the people are fat, contented, 
and happy, so far as can be judged from general 
ap[)earances, and though ready and willing to 
accept anything gratuitous from tobacco to old 
shoes, they volunteer to give nothing ; and 
Avhen they sell they are the most unscrupulous 
of Shy locks. These are part of our purchase 
from Russia. Higher up we have others of a 
different but equally interesting character. 



CHAPTER V. 



WRANGEL AND SITKA. 



TpORT AYliAXGEL is situated on an island 
-^ at the mouth of Stickeen river, and derives 
the chief part of its connneivial importance 
from trade with miners who dii>- ^old in British 
Cohunbia. 

It is, at times, what is called a "lively" 
town, made so particularh' when the miners 
come down in the fall. Then come also hun- 
dreds of squaws, who form the chief attraction 
for dance-houses. A])out eii>ht hundred Avhite 
men and tlu'ee hundred Chinese had gone up 
to the mines. During the spring l)efore and 
up to the time of our arrival, squaws were 
still numerous, but about three hundred of them 
had followed the miners. Those remaining 
'' loafed " around the stores, the younger chew- 
ing gum in seminary style, the elders smoking 
black pii)es. 

There are a number of stores here and con- 
siderable trade is done with Indians in furs. 

4G 



WRAXGEL AND SITKA. 47 

AA'hiskev is a contraband article, though plenty 
of liquor in bond is landed from Victoria and 
transferred to river steamers or canoes for the 
mines. Indians are said to do a considerable 
amount of work in and about the mines, pack- 
ing goods around portages, etc. 

Wrangel is also a famous place for fish of 
various kinds, but the most highly prized of all 
the fishes of the sea in this i)art of the world is 
the oolican or " candle fish," like a smelt, small, 
sweet, and very fat. The oil oozes from them 
when drying, and when dried thev may be 
lighted and will burn like a candle. For years 
Indians have made [)ilgrimages for hundreds of 
miles from the interior, for the purpose of tak- 
ing these fish, which run from the sea into fresh 
water streams during a few we?ks in the spring. 
They are then raked out and dried or preserved 
in brine for future use. Formerly the oolican 
were taken at the mouth of the Stickeen, but 
some twenty years since they failed and then 
they could be o])tained only at Xass river, near 
Port Simpson. Eecently, however, the oolican 
returned in countless numl)ers. 

Life at Wrangel, especially for a temporary 
sojourner, has its drawbacks. The only first- 
class hotel moves up to the mines during the 
summer, and there is no other class, conse- 



48 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

quently accommodation is limited to empty, 
cheerless cabins, or the hospitality of friends. 

To a man who has the use of his limbs and 
likes to exercise them, AVrangel must alwa3\s 
appear the most ol^jectionable of places as 
afibrding the least possible scope for locomotion. 
To " walk '' along the beach means to hop from 
boulder to boulder, and a " ramble " through the 
woods takes the shape of climbing up one side 
of bio^ loofs and slidin£>- or fallino- down the 
other, not to speak of such little difficulties as 
impenetrable brambles and " devil's clubs." 
The inhabitants of this locaHty may, howev- 
er, console themselves with the assurance that 
professional pedestrianism Avill never reach 
them. The waters of the bay aiford an oppor- 
tunity for recreation to those who can trust 
themselves to skittish canoes, but there is not 
a "white" boat in the great seaport of Wran- 
gel. 

The chief amusement in which the visitor 
can indulge, is to watch the Indians as they 
lounge along the store fronts, or saunter leis- 
urely through the straggling town. Blankets 
of every imnginal^le pattern and hue form the 
outer ofarment of the adults, the clothino- of 
youths and children being more a matter of 
accident than choice, and now and then we meet 



WR ANGEL AND SITKA. 49 

a young boy who has not yet been the subject 
of a drapery accident. The stores are gen- 
erally crowded during the day, but it would be 
unsafe to draw any conclusions as to the state 
of trade from the nunil^er of Indians fringing 
the counters. They have a w^ay of looking at 
goods for days or weeks ahead, talking the 
matter over with friends or in family conclave 
even if the coveted object is only a worsted 
scarf or a hat. To ol)tain the necessary equiv- 
alent is another consideration, involving a few 
days' lal)or at chopping or packing, or a jour- 
ney to the home of some friend or creditor, and 
when at last the preparations are concluded, the 
purchase is made furtively, and often without a 
word being uttered by salesman or purchaser. 

The arrival of large parties of Indians from 
distant villages always causes a stir in '' l)us- 
iness circles." The traders genera 11}^ have 
in their employ some hangers-on who are 
supposed to induce Indian visitors to sell their 
furs accordino' to the "runner's" recommenda- 
tion, but these fellows, as a rule, are not to be 
relied upon. The "wild" customers know 
enough of business to sell onl}^ to the highest 
bidder. They pitch their camp at some dis- 
tance from the town, and do not begin to 
"trade" until visits of ceremony have been 



50 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

exclianofed Avith resident Indians. Individuals 
Avalk into town, and, with one or two skins 
tucked away under their blanket, they make the 
round of the stores. One of these fellows will 
(juietly walk up to the counter and silently 
deposit a silver fox or beaver skin. The clerk 
picks it up, shakes it, smells it, rubs it, twist- 
ing it first one wa\^ and then another, then 
smooths it down again on the counter with an 
air of cunning and shrewdness beautiful to be- 
hold. At last he utters one or tAvo words in 
"Chinook," or some Indian dialect, mentioning 
the price. The dusky operator never accepts a 
first offer, but silently picks up the skin, con- 
ceals it in the folds of his blanket and stalks 
away. In the next store the performance is 
repeated, and days are often spent in this Avay 
l)efore a barofain is concluded. It is safe to 
assert that each of the ten store-keepers of 
Wrangel handles and appraises every skin 
brought for sale in this Avay. 

Diffei-ent tactics are resorted to, hoAvever, 
when some chief arrives Avith a laro-e consign- 
ment of furs, the fruit of a year's hunting and 
trapping by his slaves. The lucky trader who 
gets such a prospective prize Avithin his doors, 
resorts to almost any device to detain the cus- 
tomer and his precious furs. Several of the 



WE ANGEL AND SITKA. 51 

store-keepers have " private trading' rooms,*' 
into Avhich the " rich Indians " are invited and 
there treated to food, drink and tobacco — in 
some cases, it is said, also to forbidden alcoholic 
stimulants. The most tempting arra}- of dry 
goods is spread npon the floor, together with 
fire-arms and ammunition ; presents of finery are 
judiciously l)est()wed upon the females accom- 
panying the chief; candy and nuts are show- 
ered upon the juveniles. If the chief has not 
made up his mind when evening comes, he is 
loaded with canned delicacies, sweet orackers, 
and molasses, and returns to camp to feast with 
his "tilicums." Perhaps the following daj' the 
bargain is concluded — the chief receiving a 
higher price for his furs than they would luring 
in Victoria or San Francisco. But how does 
the trader live by such transactions ? That is a 
secret of the AYrangel " merchants " and I shall 
not give it away. 

It is diificult to surmise what Wrangel would 
1)e without the Indians, Init even the most ardent 
admirer of the red-men would not dare to 
assert that life is made more pleasant by their 
presence. They lumber up nearly every foot 
of available space, squatting, crouching, or 
lying at full length ; they carry with them an 
atmosphere of unpleasant odors, and are apt to 



52 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

plant theiiLselves upon any seat within their 
reach with the greatest unconcern. Their 
clothes, unless just from the store, are grini}^ 
enough to awaken uncomfortable suspicions, 
and in addition to all this they are constantly 
masticating, during the summer months a kind 
of wild celery with a very strong odor. The 
squaws bi'ing canoe-loads of it from the woods 
every morning, and by noon the stoops and 
side-walks are heaped with garbage, and the 
unpleasant scent ascends to heaven. 

The natives at Fort Wrano-el are all o:ood 
Indians, "friendly disposed toward the w^hites." 
Our steamer was boarded by a number of them 
while in the harbor, l)earing certificates of good 
charactei". The most noted of them is a blind 
old fellow with '' papers " from all the officials 
who have been in the country, and with one 
from the captain of a British man-of-war dating 
back to 1853. The old fellow who is called 
Paul Jones, came on board, desirous of obtain- 
ing a berth as interpreter for a gunboat. The 
Indians here have a high regard for gunboats, 
which they believe fully competent to rule both 
land and water. Paul Jones averred that he 
had been blind for twent3^-six years and that 
his blindness was due to sickness and thereb}^ 
liangs a tale. It is said that previous to his 



W RAN GEL AND. SITKA. 53 

blindness Paul Jones Avas a pilot on this coast, 
in which profession he achieved some extraordi- 
nary successes in a certain way. He succeeded 
in w^recking two trading schooners by deliber- 
ately running them u})on rocks for purposes of 
plunder. He made one more attempt in that 
direction, which was his last. 

As the story goes, Paul Jones was engaged 
al)out twenty-six years ago, as pilot for a mer- 
chant vessel, commanded by a captain whose 
schooner had been once wrecked by this same 
good Indian. Approaching the locality of his 
former disaster, the captain saw, or thought he 
saw, the pilot attempting to run his vessel upon 
the rocks, which he knew too well. Seeing this 
the captain seized the Indian and at first pro- 
posed to kill him, but changed the decree to 
blindness, and, in pursuance of that determina- 
tion destro^^ed the pilot's sight. He said Paul 
Jones should wreck no more vessels, and it may 
be assumed as correct that since the loss of his 
eyes he has retired from piloting, and now seeks 
to act as interpreter. One of his papers, how- 
ever, intimated that an alleged characteristic of 
the interpreter was a weakness for withholding 
from an Indian whom he might not particularly 
admire any expressions of approbation which the 
principal might be desirous of conveying. This 



54 .1 TRIP TO ALASKA. 

is a dangerous failing in an Indian interpreter, 
for flattery is a powerful engine in dealing Avith 
the simple savage. 

Another good Indian here had a most touch- 
ing tribute from General O. O. Howard, who 
hoped his protege would do all in his power to 
prevent the circulation of whiske}' among his 
people. It closed with an eloquent assurance 
that God loves those who dwell in peace to- 
gether. This lovable youth made use of his 
paper as an argument in favor of donations of 
tobacco and hard tack. 

The "medicine man" of this coast is an 
awfully mysterious personage. His first steps 
in the art of healing, according to the traditions 
of his tribe, are taken at an extremely early 
day in his career. Should a child be born with 
curh^ hair, stral)ismical eye, or a club foot, he 
is accepted as a healer of tiie generation, and 
all his early training is conducted with a view 
to increasing his supernatural powers and con- 
trol over the spirits of the air. His food is 
carefully selected, and many articles of every- 
day use among the common herd are excluded 
from his bill of fare. He is put in training for 
a doctor from his infancy, and great things are 
exi)ected of him when full}^ developed and en- 
dowed with his degree. 



WRA^'^aKL AND SITKA. 55 

The "doctor" seldom washes his person, and 
never cuts his hair, which hitter grows long and 
bushy in masses, knotted from lack of com])ing 
and entangled with burrs and general rubbish, 
such as floats around an Indian encampment. 
He adorns his scanty raiment with eagle's down, 
and altogether presents a weird, not to say 
untidy, appearance. 

In cases of serious illness among members of 
a Plain's tribe, the ^Medicine Man will adminis- 
ter sparingly some pulverized herbs and teas in 
considerable draughts, but the '^Siwash" doctor 
of the northwest coast scorns all sublunary aids, 
whether of powders or decoctions. When a 
Hyda or Stickeen Indian is very sick the 
Siwash doctor proceeds slowly at lirst to agi- 
tate his attendant spirit, which is called a 
"Yake," and by extraordinary contortions and 
g^-mnastic exercises succeeds, in the course of 
halt* an hour, in working himself up to a perfect 
paroxysm of clairvoyancy, throwing otFhis gar- 
ments as he progresses, till finally he stands 
arrayed in an al)breviated skirt about his loins, 
but is clothed chiefly in foam and perspirati.on. 
Then he is ready for business. 

He now makes "passes," as the gentlemen of 
the "P. R," call them, toward the body of the 
patient, inhaling his breath noisily through his 



56 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

teeth, produciii2: some such sound us is heard 
in dental shops when laughinii' o'as is adminis- 
tered. Ilavino' sucked the disease out of the 
form of the sick man, the doctor proceeds to 
the centre of the house and blows it up through 
the opening where smoke from the fire finds its 
exit. Of course the patient is now in a fair 
way to recovery. But in case of the patient 
not evincing any signs of improvement, the 
doctor finds that the " conditions are not favor- 
able," owing to the influence of some witch who 
has evoked an evil spirit to operate against the 
recovery. In such a case it becomes the doc- 
tor's first dut}' to point out the witch, who is 
stripped, bound, and subjected to a Puritanical 
course of discipline, with a view to forcing a 
confession. The rack, the scourge, and starva- 
tion generally have the desired eflfect, and the 
witch acknowledges anything that the doctor 
demands. This is alwa3\s gratifying, and is 
considered one of the greatest triumi)hs of the 
healing art ; but should the confession l)e made 
too late to eftect the desired cure, the witch may 
be killed, and often is sacrificed on general 
principles. Even though the patient dies 
under these circumstances it is still a trium])h 
for the doctor, as killing the witch is as good 
proof of witchcraft in that portion of Alaska 



WRANGKL AND SITKA, 57 

to-day lis it was in New England two hundred 
years ago. 

The missionaries are lal)orini2: to abolish the 
'^Siwash" school of practice, but, unfortunately, 
as they are themselves ignorant of allopathy, 
homoeopathy or hydropathy, perhaps, they have 
nothing to ot!er in its place. There is an occa- 
sional M. D. at Wrangel, travelling to the 
"di<ra'in2:s" in summer, and comins: down with 
the honest miners in the autumn, but they have 
little sympathy for sick Indians, upon Avhom 
they lay a tax so heavy, when called in, that 
their charges come to be regarded as the extor- 
tions of impostors. I heard of a doctor from 
the mines charsfino^ an Indian five dollars for a 
small box of simple salve, to be applied to a 
sore heel, and that style of healing is the fly in 
the ointment, that operates seriously against the 
success of the missionary who preaches against 
the athletic antics of the "Siwashes," who pro- 
fess to cast out unclean spirits and cure Indian 
flesh of obstinate ailments. 

If it suggests anything it is that young men 
who are educated as missionaries should receive 
regular instruction in medicine and surgery, 
which may be as necessary to success among 
savages as heavy readings in theology. 

Miners come down the Stickeen in the fall 



58 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

and make the town lively by increasing business 
genenilly. They patronize the dance-houses 
and swing- corners with the dusk}^ maidens of 
the forest and island, but the dissipation in 
these primitive halls of Terpsichore consists 
mainly of indulgence in apples and cigars, to 
which cotillon partners are treated. At the 
time of my visit no beer was sold here, but it 
has since been introduced. 

AA'hen the miners are in funds they gamble 
also, l)ut members of Congress are popularly 
credited with similar recreation as a relief to 
"overtaxed brams." Gambling as a pastime 
or profession has never yet been eradicated hy 
law, though often prohibited with severe penal- 
ties for infraction. When the miners have 
money they pay for their dancing, and when 
they have not, toward spring, they are oidy 
taxed for the lights. Failing to get pay for the 
illumination, the dancing master takes his fiddle 
under his arm, clears the house, walks out, locks 
the door, goes to the mines, and Wrangel society 
suffers a collapse. There would appear to be 
nothing of a serious nature about that. 

It is true a man was killed here during 
the winter of l(S78-9, but the shooter was tried 
by a jury of twelve men selected by himself. 
The court was presided over b}' three judges of 



WR ANGEL AND SITKA. 59 

equal jurisdiction, responsil)le business men of 
the place, and tiie murderer was regularl\' 
hanged on a reguhirly constructed scaffold. 
He had, or might have had, the benefit of 
clergy, and I believe some of the ladies sent 
him bouquets and sweetmeats while he was 
awaiting execution, which is all that could have 
been done for him in Boston or Philadelphia. 

There was no other distur])ance of a serious 
charactei* at Wrangel, except a slight row be- 
tween the resident Indians and some of the 
visiting tribes, but the Indians can and always 
will settle their own afiairs, if given a chance. 
They settled that, and though the Ilydas 
thought they ought to have a gunboat to blow 
the Stickeens into smithereens, they got along 
A\ ithout it and nobody was killed. 

On the whole it appears that the people at 
Wrangel were able to take care of themselves, 
and as they had no taxes to pay they thought 
they could get along without a Government 
imported from the East. They have no corpo- 
rate system of water works, nor any paved 
streets ; neither have they a bonded del)t. 
There may l)e plenty of work here for mis- 
sionaries, but there is no lack of missionaries 
willing to do it. There is room for moral 
improvement possible, but such a condition of 



60 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

affairs is not confined exclusively to Wrangel 
Island. 

If the people of Wrangel Avere suffering for 
government at the time of our visit, they did not 
seem to ])e aware of it. The permanent white 
population of this place Avas seventy-five per- 
sons. Indians, and transitory miners, and 
Chinese far outnuml)er them but do not count 
as population. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SITKA AND KADIAK, 



n^HE situation at Sitka Avas not greatly differ- 
-■- ent from that at Wrangel as to character 
of country and people, but there were fewer 
people at Sitka. It is less than a day's run 
for the steamer from the one place to the 
other. In good old Russian times Sitka was 
the capital of Alaska. It was occupied by a 
garrison of some three hundred men who were 
well provided with such munitions of war as 
were then regarded the most approved machines 
for murder. In those halcyon da\'s, say before 
the Mexican war, Sitka was a real metropolis 
and the most important maritime town on the 
western coast of America north of Mexico. 
The " castle " wdiicli was once the residence of 
the Governor-General still stands high upon a 
mound overlooking the settlement and the beau- 
tiful bay. But the garrison is gone ; the ship- 
building has ceased ; the martial music is silent ; 
more than three-fourths of the houses are 
vacant ; the Stockade has been contemptuously 

61 



02 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

carried iiway l)y Indians for fuel, and the place 
had alto£>:ether a deserted and discouraoino- 
aspect. KStill the few whites here talk of mines 
and great things in future for Sitka. It must 
be mines, if anything, that will create a future 
for this reminiscence of a settlement. At the 
time of our visit there were about seventy-live 
whites, men, women, and children, of all nation- 
alities here. Outside the line of the old Stock- 
ade there were about a thousand Indians. In 
the harbor was a sloop-of-war to keep the peace. 

Sitka is situated upon a swampy island hav- 
ing the sunless, very wet climate common to 
this coast above California and much worse 
in Ahiska than in Oregon and Washington 
Territory, where the climate does admit of 
some farming. But no man should come to 
Sitka to look for farm ins: lands or climate. 
And on all this coast there is not a more 
cheerless looking place than Sitka. 

When Dr. Le^Io3'ne celc])rated the comple- 
tion of his crematory l)y the incineration of 
the remains of the eccentric Baron Von Palm, 
the whole country was in a state of perspiration 
for days over the event, and representatives of 
the press from Philadelphia and Xew York 
were sent out to AA'ashington, Pennsylvania, to 
report the wonderful ceremony. Here it is 



SITKA AND KABIAK. 63 

different. Cremation is as common as death 
itself among the Indians. 

We were hardly at anchor in the harl)or at 
Sitka before we were informed that a body was 
to be barl)ecaed, and immediately after break- 
fast I went ashore to see something of the cere- 
mon}^ The funeral pyre consisted of a crib of 
dried loo's, each abont six inches in diameter 
and six feet in length, arranged four at the 
ends and three upon each side, supported by 
green stakes. 

The arrangements were very simple. The 
body of a squaw, who had died on Sunday 
(this was on Wednesday), was hoisted out of 
the smoke-hole in the center of the house. 
Dead l)0(lies are never permitted to go out 
through the doorway, among these Indians. If 
they were taken out that way, the spirits would 
be almost certain to return to plague their sur- 
viving relatives. The body in question was 
wrapped in a common bark mat, such as these 
Indians make, and laid in the crib, the top 
being covered with logs laid crosswise. The 
fire was then started and the mourners, who con- 
sisted of female relatives, sat around upon the 
ground to the windward and slightly to the 
right of the burning pile. Their hair had been 
cut short, their faces were all blackened, and as 



o 



64 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the tears from their weeping ej^es cut channels 
through the lampblack, the effect was exceed- 
ingly touching. The squaws, who numbered 
fifteen or twent^s sobbed, sniflled, and whined 
with every evidence of genuine grief. To the 
left of the women a number of male relatives of 
the deceased put in the time chanting contin- 
ually and keeping time with staves al)out five 
feet long, with which they rapped pieces of 
boards. The men stood erect all this time and 
were led in the chant hy an old man who held a 
crow totem in one hand, which being shaken, 
produced a rattling noise, by pebbles within 
the hollo^v instrument. 

The ceremony continued for about three 
hours and a half, when the remains were con- 
sumed, with the exception of some of the 
larger leg and arm bones and a portion of the 
skull. As soon as the residuum was cool enough 
to be taken up, the mass, along with some of 
the wood ashes, was placed in a box, which Avas 
deposited in a sort of small hen-coop on stakes, 
scores of which dot the hill behind the village. 

After the cremation the tired Indians turned 
in and slept during the afternoon, and at night 
had their customary dance in honor of the suc- 
cessful issue of the enterprise. 



CHAPTER VII. 

KADIAK. 

OO ftir as mere extent of territory is con- 
^ cerned it inast be admitted tliat in the 
purchase of Ahiska we got enough kind, or 
water and rocks, for the money. Our property 
in this region commences at Cape Fox as the 
southeastern extremity, about 50° 42' north 
Latitude and 130° west from Greenwich. From 
this point a strip of ten marine leagues in width 
along the coast extends northward to ]Mount 
St. Elias, and thence due north to the Arctic 
Ocean. Alons^ the coast of the southeastern 
portion a number of islands form many inland 
passages similar to those on the coast of British 
Columbia. The southern portion of Alaska 
is split about the sixtieth parallel, leaving the 
mainland to continue southward to the line of 
British Columbia, while to the westward ex- 
tends the peninsula, which terminates in lon- 
gitude 160° 20' west. Then commences the 
Aleutian Archipelago, forming a chain of islands 

05 



66 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

with narrow passages between, bending around 
to the southward and "svestward, reaching to 
Attou, 187° 40' west, or 172° 20' east from 
Greenwich. Thus it will be seen our most 
westerly Alaskan settlement is in the eastern 
hemisphere — nearer to London by a western 
than l)y an eastern course. 

From Cape Fox — the southeastern extremity 
of Alaska — to Attou, is thirty-five and one-half 
degrees, or about nineteen hundred miles. A 
line drawn from Attou throus^h the middle of 
Behring Straits will pass between the Diomed 
Islands at a distance of about one thousand miles 
from Attou. From there we may claim north- 
ward till stopped l)y polar ice. This is an 
extensive territory, taking in the water, but 
even of land there are live hundred and sixty- 
one thousand square miles; and if the land, 
which is mostly set up on end, so far as it is 
known, were flattened down, there would be a 
great deal more. But probably there is enough 
of it now, such as it is. 

The mountains of Kadiak rise into view at 
fifty miles distance from the harbor, presenting 
an exceedingly rugged and picturesque appear- 
ance. The foregound is barren and cold look- 
ing, Avith sharp ridges and peaks of snow in the 
rear. As we approach, forests of scraggy 



KADIAK. 67 

spruce become visible, and we are told to take 
a good look at them, because we will see no 
timber to the west and north. Kadiak is an 
island a hundred miles or more in length and 
averaging, perhaps, forty miles in width, being 
separated from the mainland bv the Straits of 
Shelikoo. Kadiak and adjacent islands contain 
a population of upwards of two thousand souls, 
many of them being Russians and of mixed blood. 
The great majority of the people, however, are 
Innuits, who live principally on hsh, which is 
here the staple article of food, as bread is in 
some connnunities. The settlement of Kadiak — 
or St. Paul's, as it is put down on some of 
the charts — contains a church (Russo-Greek), 
the stores of two trading companies, a custom- 
house, the remains of a United States garrison, 
and quite a village of houses in which the na- 
tives reside. 

Tlie Russians made an attempt to have their 
headquarters at Kadiak, being a central point, 
and in many respects quite advantageous ; but a 
better harl)or was found at Sitka, five hundred 
and fifty miles to the eastward. At present 
Kadiak derives its chief importance from the 
fur-traders' stations here, forming the head- 
quarters of a consideral)le traffic up Cook's 
Inlet. Another industry, formerly of import- 



6S A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

ance here, was the cutting and storing of ice for 
the use of San Francisco, which trade has been 
suspended by the manufacture of artificial ice 
in the California metrojiolis. The American- 
Kussian Ice Company still puts up a hirge 
supply of ice every year, permitting it to melt 
away at the close of the season, so as to fur- 
nish work for the natives during the winter 
months. It is understood that the San Fran- 
cisco Artificial Ice Company have some benevo- 
lent arrangement with the Kadiak concern by 
which the market is not disturl)ed ; but, in the 
event of any trouble with the San Francisco 
Company, Kadiak ice could be sent down from 
here. 

Kadiak is considered a specially favored spot 
in Alaska because it produces timber and a good 
quality of grass. More cattle are found here 
than in any other portion of Alaska, though 
hay must be provided for their support during 
four months of the 3^ear. Native potatoes also 
thrive here, and these, with fish, which are re- 
markably al)undant, and the fur trade, make it 
one of the most important settlements in the 
Territory. As an agricultural and pastural 
country Kadiak has no equal along the coast 
of Alaska. There may be fifty head of cattle 
on the island, and as many more on Woody 



KADIAK. 



69 



Island, across the harbor, where the ice com- 
pany has its head quarters. Here is found the 
acrent who hires the people to cut ice, to run 
hTs saw-mill, to build his boats, and to care 
for his horses. He buys their furs, furnishes 
them with such store goods as they need, ad- 
ministers medicines when they are sick, and 
has a general supervision of the colony except 
in the'^matter of religion, which he leaves them 
to enjoy according to their education. For him- 
self he'enjoys life. He sails, he hunts, he rides, 
walks, and takes all sorts of athletic exercises, 
and has sport of all kinds that can be had in a 
country like this, prolific in game and free from 
political and other restrictions. His house is 
well furnished, his table luxuriously supplied, he 
has no taxes to pay, no elections to trouble him 
or his people, no police, nor any use for them. 

One of the institutions of Kadiak is the 
" galanka." This is an upright furnace made of 
brick, the best and most economical heater that 
has ever been tried, so the people say out this 
way, and they all agree on this point. It is a 
series of connecting tlues which retain the heat 
for twenty-four hours after the small amount of 
wood used has been consumed. Out in this 
country there is nothing to compare with the 
ffalanka as a house-warmer. 



70 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

The commercial importance of Kadiak at 
present consists of its far trade drawn from the 
surroundino: countr}', princii)ally from Cook's 
Inlet. This will probably diminish, but there 
seem to be other resources here whicli, in the 
course of time, may develop into something of 
value. The waters hereabouts are plentifully 
supplied with fish, — cod, salmon, and herring 
being caught in anj' quantity required. There is 
a canner}' at Karlook where excellent salmon 
are preserved. There is considerable spruce 
timber suitable for the construction of small 
vessels, and the natives are apt at mechanical 
emplovments, labor l)eino- cheap, so that there 
seems to be no reason why fishing could not be 
made an important industry at Kadiak. The 
agricultural resources of the island are consid- 
ered superior — for Alaska, but they must be 
rated exceedingly limited in fact. Here, as 
about "Wrangel and Sitka, there are morasses 
on the tops of the hills. Snow lingers on the 
mountains all summer, melting just fast enough 
to keep the whole island saturated with ice water, 
and ice water is not generally considered a valu- 
aljle adjunct to fancy gardening, or even to 
profitable farming. Along the coast, adjacent 
to the l)each, are the dr3'est and warmest si)()ts 
of soil. In these places small native potatoes and 
other liardv vcijetables will o-row. The native 



KADIAK. 71 

potatoes are very good, but exceedingly small. 
They bear about the same relation to the best 
varieties of potatoes that Texas cattle do to short- 
horns. In all the little gardening to he seen at 
Sitka and Kadiak, success depends on making 
narrow, raised beds sloping southward, so that 
they may be kept as warm and dry as possil)le 
on the surface. 

Wild cranberries grow plentifully on Kadiak, 
and, though they are of fine flavor, they are 
small and probably could not be shipped with 
profit. Furs and fish are the most valuable of 
its products at present. The furs consist of sea 
and land otter, marten, mink, lynx, wolverine, 
and fox, including red, cross, black, and silver- 
gray. INIink and beaver are low-priced furs, 
but a great many go in with the others. One 
of the companies had just got in the spring ship- 
ments of furs a short time before our arrival 
at Kadiak, and, hanging on the loft of the ware- 
houses, they made a display which would be 
an object of great public interest if on exhibi- 
tion in any large city of the " States." The va- 
riety and richness of grades and shades were 
bewildering. In addition to what these com- 
panies obtain, the AVood Island trader buys all 
of the best that arc offered him. Altogether the 
three houses ship perhaps one hundred thousnnd 
dollars worth of furs from Kadiak annuallv. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

THE S HUM AGIN ISLANDS. 

"T EAVING Kadiak we steam westward to 
-"-^ Unga, one of the Sliumagin group of is- 
lands lying south of the peninsula of Alaska. 
Coasting along for two days, land is almost con- 
stantly within sight — rough, barren-looking 
mountains. The ''Rush" lost considerable time 
in deep-sea soundings between Kadiak and 
Unga, and in making o])servations of prominent 
points. The deep-sea soundings did not develop 
much, but the observations resulted in establish- 
ing the fact that the coast-survey charts are 
considerably "out" in the position^ of many 
headlands. 

Unga is the chief of the Shumagin group 
and is the centre of considerable cod-fishing. 
A number of small schooners are up here in- 
dependently, and a California company has a 
station on Popoff Island, twelve miles distant 
from Delaroff, the harbor and settlement of 
Unga Island. At that station, which is called 
72 



THE SHU M AGIN ISLANDS. 73 

Pirate Cove, the fish are salted and packed for 
shipment to San Francisco, where they are 
dried. A number of small vessels trade anions^ 
these islands for furs. The leading variety is 
sea otter, a great many of Avhich are taken 
herea])outs, though Belkoosky, on the mainland, 
is head centre for these skins. Still Unga is 
much resorted to for furs, as the numerous 
rocks a])out the islands are frequented by the 
otter, which is ver}^ valuable. 

The sea otter is said to be the slwest of ani- 
mals and most sensitive to the presence of man 
or any — to them — unfamiliar odor. Hunters 
will remain for months on a rock in the coldest 
and wettest of winters without a fire or any 
means of warming their food or sleeping-places, 
waiting and watching for their prey. They 
endure the most severe sufferings, and they 
have their rewards in skins which bring them 
from thirty to sixty dollars each. But such 
privations as the hunters undergo shorten their 
lives, and what might be needed to complete 
first-class cases of consumption is found in the 
"barabaras," — sod huts in which they live, half 
underground, almost entirely in the dark, and 
quite without ventilation. Consunq)tion is the 
irreat asrent of death anions^ the Aleuts, as 
among the Alaskan Indians, while rheumatism 



74 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

is the acute disease that racks their bodies with 
sharp pains through life. 

The Shumagin Islands, like other points 
visited by the ''Rush" in Alaska, possess the 
undesirable peculiarity of being scant in soil in 
moderately dry spots, while the tops of hills are 
swamps, cold and unfathomable. What at a 
short distance looks like an attractive range of 
rolling hills proves on close inspection to be 
only a morass in which a sheep would be lost 
unless provided with a cork jacket. AVhy 
white men should leave the United States and 
settle down in such an inhospitable region as 
this is almost incomprehensible, except on the 
theory that they have had a rough experience 
in their })ast lives, or have retired for some 
good reason from localities which once knew 
them, but which know them no more. 

Yet here are half a dozen of them, and until 
recently they labored under disadvantages which 
the natives were not oblio-ed to encounter, for all, 
except natives, were forbidden to hunt. This 
order was issued with a view of preventing out- 
siders from crowding in here to destroy the sea 
otter, and thus leave the natives without means 
of earning a livelihood. The rule has recently 
l)een modified by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
who sent out circulars announcing that while 



THE SHUMAGiy ISLANDS. 75 

men married to native women would be con- 
sidered natives in regard to privileges of hunt- 
ing, which is consoling to the men, who get 
their citizenship in this manner, though they 
always hunted. 

Steering around among the Shumagins by 
tortuous courses, and avoiding the jagged rocks, 
which stand in skirmish line depkncd from 
the snow-covered mountains, we come to Bel- 
koosky, an Aleutian settlement upon a point of 
the peninsula, and almost, if not quite, the head 
centre of the sea-otter huntins:. Sea otters are 
found among the rocks, and rocks stick out of 
the water here in every direction. Belkoosky 
is exposed to southeast gales, but the settle- 
ment was not established as a pleasure resort. 
If it had been, it might have been i)laced on an 
arm of Belkoosky Bay, which is as smooth as 
a mill-dam. But Belkoosky Bay in that part 
freezes over, and the ice would prevent " bidar- 
kies" putting out with the seal hunters, while 
from the present exposed position of the place 
the sea is open to the hunters at all times. 
When people live by the sea this is an advan- 



tage. 



The Belkoosky settlement consists mainly of 
Aleuts, all members of the Greek church. They 
live much as the people do at Unga, paying no 



76 A TRIP TO ALASA'A. 

attention to agriculture, for which their country 
is but poorly adapted, and looking to the sea 
for the necessaries of life. They live in har- 
mony — barring family squab])les — and they 
do not ask for national interference. All they 
seem to want is to be let alone. Onalaska, 
Atka, Attou, — all of the Aleutian settle- 
ments, — are similarly situated in regard to 
government and politics. They have none, 
and they do not seem to want any. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ONALASKA is the chief settlement of the 
Aleutian Archipelago. Vessels from here 
cruise among the islands to eastward and west- 
ward, bringing in the sea-otter, fox, and other 
furs. At the time of our arrival one warehouse 
contained one thousand two hundred sea-otter 
skins, worth here at that time about forty dol- 
lars each. Before these were shipped the num- 
ber swelled to three thousand, worth in London 
some two hundred and twenty-live thousand dol- 
lars. This will represent, perhaps, two-thirds of 
all the sea-otter skins furnished to the work! 
annually ; for comparatively few go from any 
other quarter. The sea otter has a fine, close 
fur, l)ut it is used principally for trimming, 
being too heavy and too expensive for full gar- 
ments. The fur-seal is much more desira])le 
for cloaks and not so costly. In addition to sea 
otter, black, silver-gray, cross, and red foxes, and 
other land furs, mainly from Bristol Bay, centre 
here for shipment to San Francisco, and when 



78 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

hanging in the warehouses make a grand dis- 
phiy. Two fur companies had head quarters 
here for operations east, west, and northward. 

Like all other Aleut settlements of any con- 
sequence, Onalaska has a Kussian church ; hut 
here the priest, Father »Shiesnekoo, enjoys a 
degree of confidence, respect, and influence not 
possessed by all of the gown in Aleutia. Some 
of the priests in Alaska are not much thought 
of. It was reported that a number of them, 
along with some from San Francisco, were to be 
sent to Siberia, and, though there may have been 
grounds for the supposition that they ought to 
go, none went. It may not be generally known 
that the Eussian government pays the salaries 
of the Greek priests in America, — over one 
hundred thousand rubles per annum being sent 
by the Czar to the San Francisco Consistory. 

The Aleuts are all members "of the Greek 
faith. The forms and ceremonies of this 
church are better suited to their simple minds 
thiui those of any other Christian denomination. 
It is full of m3^sterie8, and that is what they 
want to make religion palatable. The}' would 
not respect a doctrine that they could under- 
stand. Until they shall have been further 
advanced intellectually, nothing but the incom- 
prehensible will satisfy their spiritual longings. 



ON ALASKA'S SHORE. 79 

The members of the Eassiim church do not 
sit within their houses of worship. The ves- 
tibule of each of these churches opens into 
a o-oro'eous rotunda, decorated with reb'o'ious 
pictures, furnished with immense silver-plated 
chandeliers, having sconces for a dozen candles 
each. Candelabra3, with many lights, stand 
upon a raised dais and reach as high as a man's 
head. In the centre, facing you as you stand 
with your back to the entrance, is a lattice 
door, on the inner side of wdiich is a curtain 
concealing wliatever may be within. As you 
enter, the congregation stands facing the screen, 
but back from the rotunda. The men stand 
upon the right, the women on the left. The 
singers consist of men and boys led b}^ the 
second priest. In Sitka the choir had a posi- 
tion behind a screen to the right of tlie rotun- 
da. Here in Onalaska they occu}^y a narrow 
gallery, where there is also a l)ench for visi- 
tors. 

There may be no priest in sight, but the sing- 
ins: in ii monotonous half-chant continues at all 
times when the priest is not reading or praying. 
Presently the curtain in the centre is drawn 
back, an altar within the sanctum sanctorum is 
revealed, and a priest in gorgeous vestments 
and wearing a tall, bell-crowned, blue-velvet hat, 



80 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

is seen reading, praying, or swinging a censer. 
The attendant who waits upon him kisses his 
hand with each article given him, and crosses 
himself as he passes the altar. The curtain is 
drawn again and the holy of holies is once 
more concealed from view. 

After another short interval the priest comes 
out into the rotunda by a side door, and walks 
around to the centre, carrying a chalice or 
some other portion of the communion service. 
As he appears, the people to right and left fall 
to bending and crossing themselves as rapidly 
as possible. The youngsters especially, who 
are kept in front, toward the rotunda, bend like 
growing grain in a summer's gale, and cross 
themselves as if troul)led by mosquitoes. 
Hands fly from forehead to breast, and from 
shoulder to shoulder, while the body bends and 
sways, and occasionally a forehead touches the 
floor, the devout worshipper Ijeing down on 
hands and knees. 

The priest walks slowly around toward the 
raised platform in the centre and disappears in 
the inner room, Avhich is elevated a foot or two 
above the rotunda. The latticed doors meet 
behind him, and, as the chalice is placed upon 
the little altar, the curtain again shuts out the 
view from the conoreoation, who stand with 



ONALASKA'S SHORE. 81 

bowed heads mentally repeating prayers, as 
would appear from their frequent crossings. 
Now the mysteries of transubstantiation are 
taking place. Shortly the curtain is again 
thrown back, the priest walks out with a silver 
chalice and spoon, takes position on the lower 
step of the dais, and a number of Avonien, with 
children in their arms, step forward one at a 
time. The youngsters are from a few months 
to two years of age, and as they are held up 
the priest takes a small portion of the contents 
of the chalice in the spoon and inserts it in the 
child's mouth. The forehead of the child is 
touched with the chalice, and the ceremony of 
communion is completed. 

Altogether the service is such as could not 
fail to make a profound impression on the . 
minds of humble people like the Aleuts ; and as 
they stand bowing and crossing themselves, or 
touching their foreheads to the floor, the 3'oung- 
est girls, with small colored shawls, worsted 
scarfs, or bright handkerchiefs over their heads 
and about their full olive faces, the young- 
ladies in hats somewhat gay with blue and white 
riljbons and feathers, the older women in head- 
gear of a more su1)dued character, the effect is 
exceedingly picturesque. As to religion, it is 
with tliese peo[)le a matter of faith, pure and 



82 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

unadulterated. It is the priest's business to 
conduct them to heaven. All they have to do 
is what they are told, and this tlie3^ appear 
to do in great earnestness, at least in form. 

The Eussians had the advantage over others 
in dealing with these people, which is the result 
of ])oth usino- the same lansfuao-e and of lono' 
domination, which completely subjected them 
to the will of what they for generations felt 
])e a superior race backed In' unlimited power. 
The children got some exceedingly primitive 
rudiments of book knowledge in the Russian 
language, but not enough to hurt them with all 
the proverl)ial perils of limited learning. Now 
the Alaska Commercial Company supports an 
English school upon this as upon each of the 
seal islands. Until English l^ecomes the lan- 
guage of the country- , American missionaries 
need not look to do much prosehting from the 
Eussian church. In ti'uth there does not seem 
to ])e any reason why they should. The Aleuts 
are peaceful and contented, and will ask for 
nothing that their present condition does not 
afford them until their characters shall liaAe 
been chana'ed by the interminolino- of Anolo- 
Saxon blood. When this occurs they may 
want politics and an improved religion. 

Just now the}^ get along very well, ixW things 



ONALA,^KA'S SHOEE. 83 

considered. They are lazy, but, as they have 
to subsist on fish and oil as staples, it could not 
])e expected that they should be enterprising 
or industrious. They may sin, but they go 
to confession and are guaranteed forgiveness. 
They go to church on Sunday morning and 
have a dance in the evenino'. A dance on Sun- 
day night is considered a very proper thing, 
and as there is no o'ossii:) and nothino- strono-er 
than tea for them to drink, perhaps no great 
harm conies of it. Onalaska consists of a strag- 
gling settlement of some sixty houses of natives 
and a few Company buildings, situated upon a 
sand-spit, about six miles from Captain's Bay, 
Avhere Cook, the navigator, wintered in 1804-5. 
The original Aleutian houses are called bara- 
baras, being nothing more nor less than such 
constructions as are known in the States by 
the name of root-houses. They are earthen huts, 
the tioors of which are about two feet below the 
outside surfiice. They are supplied Avith one 
door and a small window, being damp, dark, 
and dirty. From a sanitary point of view 
they are not to be compared with the Indian 
tepees on the plains, which are light and well 
ventilated. These barabaras are constructed 
with a view to obtaining the greatest amount 
of warmth for the smallest expenditure of 



84 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

fuel, for in former times fuel was exceedingly 
scarce. 

Since leaving Kadiak, about seven hundred 
miles to the eastward, we have not seen any 
standing timber larger than a walking-stick. 
At present the Alaska Commercial Company 
brings up coal from Xanaimo for use on board 
their vessels and in their offices and other build- 
ings, but previous to this the only fuel in use 
on these islands was drift from the northward 
and a viney sort of shrub called ''chik-a-snik." 
Native women now go up to the mountains, and 
they do not have far to go, where the^' gather 
the "timber," which is rolled into bundles like 
ha3% and carried down upon their backs. These 
women may be seen coming over the hills in 
single file, loaded down with " chik-a-snik," 
like pack trains in the mines. The}^ are Chris- 
tians, but, when loaded, look very much like 
squaws unconverted. 

When chik-a-snik Avas the onh^ fuel, as it is 
still with a great majority of the Aleuts, the 
barabara was found to be the warmest habita- 
tion for the people. They boil tea water with 
chik-a-snik as fuel, and that is the principal 
part of their cooker3\ Their fish is also pre- 
pared over it ^xhew not eaten raw. For warmth 
they formerly depended on their fur and feather 



ONALASKA'S SHORE. 85 

clothing and crowding together in close quar- 
ters. At present some of the natives occu[)y, 
rent-free, small frame houses, built and owned 
by the Alaska Commercial Company. 

The villages of Unga and Belkoosky, farther 
to the eastward, are simihir to Onalaska in the 
matter of huts, diet, and fuel, but they are not 
such important settlements as this. The natives 
live principally in barabaras ; they rely on 
driftwood and chik-a-snik for fuel ; they hunt 
the sea otter for wealth, sul^sist principally on 
fish, and profess the Greek Catholic faith. As 
a rule they are not neat in their persons and 
seldom attractive in appearance. Some of the 
women are taught to dress after the style of the 
humbler of their more enlightened sisters, but 
the general effect presented by them as they 
attend to their various duties is not very fasci- 
nating. 

The bidarkie is a boat used by the Aleuts 
in huntino^ and fishino-. A frame fifteen to 
twenty feet in length is constructed of narrow 
light strips of wood, lashed together with 
thongs of seal skin, and this frame is covered 
with skins of sea lion, from which the hair 
has been scraped. The seams are closed with 
srrease, and as the entire frame is covered over 
with the exception of one or two round hatches 



86 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

or holes for the puddlers to sit in, the}' have a 
craft light and seaworthy. One or two, some- 
times three, men will go to sea in one of these 
frail barks, and though the waves may dash 
over them, no wnter is shipped so long as the 
frame holds together. In addition to the pad- 
dlers, who sit in the hatches, their Avives and 
children are sometimes stowed away in the hold, 
so that the}^ are entirely out of sight within the 
boat, lying between the feet and legs of the 
men. Fish and furs are similarly transported. 

At Kadiak the natives use a single paddle, 
sha})ed like a narrow and pointed spade, but 
the i)eople to the westward of that island invari- 
a])ly have double-bladed paddles, Avhich they dip 
alternately port and starboard. The bidarkie 
is constructed somewhat after the model of a 
working-boat, l)ut so light on the water that 
a person not accustomed to navigating it is 
extremely lial)le to capsize, unless having an 
expert on board to balance the craft. The 
natives are very dexterous in the management 
of the bidarkies, as may be supposed. 

Xo matter where human beings may be cast 
away, they accommodate themselves to their 
surroundings. Here is a people who, living in 
a foggy, rainy, cold, inhospitable country, go 
to work and produce every article necessary to 



ox A LA. 'SKA'S SHORE. 87 

their existence. They catch fish, which is dried 
for winter use and soaked in oil to make it 
digestible. The seal is captured for meat and 
clothing. Sea-lion skins are used for the con- 
struction of boats, in which the natives ply 
their trade. The intestines of the seal are pre- 
pared for the manufacture of waterproof shirts. 
Waterproof boots are made, with sea-lion flip- 
pers for soles, seal flippers for ui)pers, and 
walrus throats for tops. The sea is watched for 
wood, the mountains are climbed for the viney 
chik-a-snik, a light fuel, but still of service, 
Avhale sinews are used for thread, Avalrus ivory 
for spears, and tanned bird-skins for parkies, 
or outside robes, which are worn in dry, winter 
weather, and warm garments they are. So 
situated and provided for, the Aleuts are con- 
tented and attached to their homes, fond of their 
children and wives, seldom beating them except 
in the Avay of kindness. 

As I have said that the Aleutian Islands are 
not suitaljle for agricultural or pastoral pur- 
poses, justice demands the admission that a 
dozen head of cattle, a flock of about twenty 
sheep, numerous chickens, and a few pigs are 
seen in Onalaska, but their presence is not due 
to nor appreciated by the Aleuts. Traders 
own and cherish them. The natives would 



88 A TRIP TO ALA.^KA. 

rather have a dead whale drift ashore than to 
own the best crop of the Ijiggest farm in the 
United States. Dead whale is a great blessing 
in the Aleutian part of oar Alaska possessions, 
and agricultural products are hut little sought 
after or valued. The dead whale may ])e so 
putrid that the effluvia arising from it will 
blacken the white paint of a vessel lying one 
hundred ^^ards distant, but, all the same, the 
whale is a blessing. 

jNIen and boys dig holes through the mon- 
ster's skin and descend into the lower regions 
to excavate the choice parts. Children claw 
out long strips of l)lu])ber, on one end of which 
they begin and chew until, inch by inch, yards 
of it disappear, and their little round bellies are 
puffed out like aldermanic paunches, while the 
oil runs in two small streams down from the 
corners of their sweet liaby mouths — and they 
are happy. 



CHAPTER X. 

SEALSKIN SACQUES. 



rpHE seal '^ fisheries" of the Prybilov Islands 
J- in Behring Sea control the markets of the 



world in the commodity which they produce 
in -reatest abundance. Of the two islands m 
the^'group upon which the fur seal is taken, bt. 
Pau? furnishes eighty thousand skins annually, 
which is about one-half of all that are sent to 

market. . 

The fur sealskins of the world are raamly 
taken as follows : St. Paul's, eighty thousand ; 
St. Georo-e's, twenty thousand (one hundred 
thousand ^ from these two islands being all that 
our government authorizes the lessees to take) ; 
fron^ Copper and Behring Islands, on the 
Asiatic side of Behring Sea, twenty-five thou- 
sand ; mouth of the La Plata River, Brazil, 
about five thousand; Crozette Islands, Indian 
Ocean, fifteen hundred; from Shetland and 
Falkland Islands, oft^ Cape Horn, five thousand, 

on 



90 A TRIP TO ALA.SKA. 

and a few hundreds from Robbin's Island, in the 
Okhotsk Sea. In all perhaps less than one 
hundred and sixty thousand sealskins are taken 
annually, including those which are shot along 
the coast from California to Alaska. Although 
less than live thousand are taken annually on 
the Shetlands and Falklands, not less than 
twenty thousand so-called " Shetland fur seal- 
skins" are sold every year. The possil)ility of 
such an incoherent state of trade is one of the 
peculiarities of conmierce, caused by the fact 
that the Shetland fur seals are supposed to be 
the best in the world. But the Alaska fur seals 
are perhaps the best. 

Eobbin's Reef, in the Okhotsk Sea, Avas once 
a rich fur field, but the seals have been almost 
exterminated or driven awa3\ The first seals 
discovered on Rob1)ins Reef Avere found by a 
cruiser nanied Allen, from New London, Con- 
necticut, about twenty-five years ago. Allen 
was an old whaler, who had lived ashore for a 
number of years, but in 1858 he set out in a 
new ship to cruise for oil. Touching at Rob- 
bin's Reef, he found fur seals there in such 
number as to enable him to make up a very valua- 
ble cargo of their skins. He loaded and hurried 
down to Honolulu for salt to preserve them, 
and finally got his prize safely to market. The 



SEALSKIN SACQUES. 91 

profits of that voyage paid for liis new A\\\) and 
enabled the jolly old sea dog to retire once 
more and live happily ever afterward ; but 
within two years the seals were nearly extermi- 
nated in that locality. 

When we purchased Alaska we ol)tained, 
along with an innnense amount of worthless ter- 
ritory, two islands in Behring's Sea which are a 
mine of wealth, inexhaustible and incalculable 
in value so long as properly managed. The 
largest of these two islands, St. Paul's, is 
situated in north latitude 57^ 8' and west lono-i- 
tude 170° 13', and is about twelve miles long 
by eight wide between extreme points. St. 
George's is situated forty miles to the southward 
from St. Paul's. From these two islands one 
hundred thousand fur sealskins — and, according 
to law, no more — may be taken annually. As 
they form the most extensive and valuable fur 
seal fisheries in the known world, some ac- 
count of what occurs here may be acceptable 
to the ladies if to no other readers, for every 
lady is supposed to have a sealskin sacque, or 
is suspected af a desire to own one ; and of 
course she should know something about the 
origin of the garment she wears. This knowl- 
edge, however, must be limited at best, for the 
comino's and c^oinos of the fur seal are so en- 



92 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

veloped in nl3^stery that a great deal about their 
movements is merely conjectural. 

The Prybilov IsUmds are named in honor of 
a Russian trader, Avho discovered them a hun- 
dred years ago, when sealskin sacques were not 
so much in vogue as now. There were many 
Russian traders among the Aleutian Islands in 
those days, and it was while hunting for new 
sea-otter grounds for his employers that Pry- 
])ilov discovered St. George's, one hundred and 
ninety miles north of the nearest point of the 
Aleutian Archipelago. St. Paul's was discov- 
ered during the following year. When first 
found, the islands, which are of comparatively 
recent volcanic formation, had no inhabitants, 
Aleuts being brought in by the Russians for the 
work of sealing. For a number of years (Pry- 
bilov's discovery soon becoming known to the 
other traders) there Avas great competition and 
an indiscriminate slaughter of seals, which 
threatened their extinction ; but later the Rus- 
sian government leased all Alaska to one com- 
pany, and then steps Avere taken to prevent the 
extermination of the valual)le animal. 

The seals were protected so as to yield a 
certain revenue till Alaska was transferred to 
the United States, when, during the interreg- 
num between the departure of the Russians and 



SEALSKIN SAC QUE S. 93 

instalhition of our government in actiuil posses- 
sion, ti genei'al onslaught was made by every 
whaler and trader under the American flag in 
these waters, so that extermination of the seals 
again seemed imminent. Finally the islands 
were leased to one company, to the exclusion of 
all others, but with limitations as to the number of 
skins — not exceeding one hundred thousand — 
to be taken aimually. Under this arrangement 
the number of seals is steadily increasing, and 
the lessees pay about three hundred thousand 
dollars annually into the Treasury. Competi- 
tion in seal slaughter would destroy all the seals 
and this revenue within two years. 

The matured male fur seal, when he draws up 
out of the ocean after a six or eioht months' 
cruise in waters to us unknown, is a magniticent 
animal. Bold, bad, and beautiful, he takes a 
position in May among the basaltic rocks which 
are washed hj the surf in storms, braces his 
broad chest upon his fore flippers, stretches his 
heavily maned, gloss}^ undulating neck, throws 
his tapering head aloft, and roars forth a hoarse 
bellow of defiance to all the world. He closes 
with a guttural growl that sounds like two 
quarts of pe])l^les rattling in his throat ; while 
down by the corners of his threatening mouth, 
stockaded with ivory fangs, droop the long, 
gray lines of his aristocratic moustache. 



94 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Here he takes his stand, and in this position 
he will meet his expected family, or death. In 
the full vigor and power of a perfect physical 
condition, he may l)e killed, but cannot I)e driven 
aw^ay from the ground Avhich he has chosen for 
his seraglio, for he is a pol^'gamist of the most 
uncompromising character. 

In June comes his multitudinous bride. The 
male fur seal is a huge, but symmetrical, brown- 
ish bulk of six to eight hundred pounds. The 
female is a meek, modest, submissive-looking 
little creature averaging about a hundred- 
weight. She creeps up out of the water with a 
demure, downcast countenance, with the shining- 
hair neatly brushed back from her pretty little 
head, and — arrayed in a brown sacque, think 
you? Not at all. She is a Quakerish looking 
matron in unpretending steel graj', but sleek 
and tidy, without a wrinkle in her dress. 

There could not be a greater contrast in 
seeming than that between the male and female 
fur seal. He, aggressive, fierce, and blood- 
thirst}^ ; she, meek and lowly, but, as rumors 
go, sly withal, and were she sole mistress of her 
lord's aftections would, no doubt, exhibit a 
temper of her own. Competition keeps her 
spirit down, poor thing. There are more 
females than males. 



SEALSKIN SAC QUE S. 95 

Both iiiiile and female seals are perfect 
models of grace and symmetry. There is not 
an angle in the contour of either, but in size, 
color, and character they are opposites. One 
represents strength and courage, the other 
timidity and affection. 

The baby seals are black, playful little imps, 
that roll and wrestle with each other on the 
grass, kiss and quarrel, learn from their fond 
mammas how to swim, and start out on their 
first voyage to sea in autumn, or furnish the 
Aleuts with veal throuo-h the winter. Some 
may swim and some must boil in their baby- 
hood. Some are swalloAved by sharks or 
"killers," and some return to celebrate their 
birth anniversary where they first saw the 
fog. In their second year they are safe on 
the Prybilov Islands, but exposed to danger 
along the coast, where neither age nor sex 
is spared by those who may be able to shoot 
or spear them. During their third year the 
males may be rapped on the sconce at St. 
Paul's or St. Georo-e's, wherever thev haul 
out, and in their fourth year their chances 
for living to old age are considerably less. 
At five years they are comparatively safe 
again ; at six, assurance policies might be 
issued to them at small premiums ; and at 



96 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

eight they have nothing to fear from the lessees 
of the Prybilov group. 

The '^ pup " seals may be killed by the natives 
in the fall in sufficient numbers to afford food 
during the winter ; but the fur sealskin is not 
marketable before the second year ; the}^ are at 
their best when the animal is four or five years 
old, but after six the coating of the hide runs 
gradually from fur to hair, till the latter pre- 
dominates and the skin is not valuable. The 
females are never killed here, unless by accident, 
when slauo'hterinof a drove. 

The coast lines of the two islands are 
largely occupied by what are known as " rook- 
eries," or breeding-grounds of the seal, which 
come here once a year. A sand}' beach is not 
much favored by the seals. They select locali- 
ties where basaltic boulders abound as plenti- 
fully as hills in a potato patch, and considerably 
larger. The "bulls," as they are technically 
called, arrive first. Where they go in the fall, 
or where they come from in the spring, is mainly 
conjectural, but as soon as the ice melts or 
floats from the shores of these islands the bulls 
appear and take positions among the rocks, all 
laying chiim to tracts nearly uniform in size and 
shape, al^out twenty feet in diameter, on an 
average. Some seasons are so late in oi)ening 



SEALSKIN SAC QUE S. 1)7 

that the ice is dug awjiy from the shores Ijy 
the company's employees in order to permit the 
seals to land. 

The first to arrive are the stronofest of the 
seals, and they take up claims nearest the 
Avater. Those which are later or weaker are 
driven further back to less desirable places. 
jNIight makes right in these matters, — seals 
which are not lirst-class fii>hters i>oino- to the 
wall or up the l)luft\ It is a case of the 
survival of the Jir/Jdest. 

The old bulls occupy their pre-emptions for 
weeks without ooino- into the w^ater, awaitino- 
the arrival of the females, sleeping upon their 
ground, neither eating nor drinking during that 
time. This, however, is but preliminary to a 
much longer vigil and fast, w^hich continues for 
three months after the arrival of the females. 
During this time they live by al)sorption of 
the l)lubber which they accumulate Avhiie 
away. When they depart they are weak and 
lean. AVhen they return they are sleek and 
fat. 

If there is lighting over the pre-emption and 
hohling of ground for the harem, there is a 
much o-reater strusf^fle a few weeks later. When 
the females arrive the old Turks in waitino- 
dance down to the water's edire to escort them 



98 A TBIP TO ALASKA. 

to the Imrems. Then the fiohtins^ heii'ins in 

o o c 

earnest, the contestants tearing clum})s of fur 
out of each other for the privilege of doing the 
honors and taking the party in steel-gray under 
their protection. Half a dozen males may be 
engaged for a moment in a ver}^ rough and 
indiscriminate tuinl)le over a new arrival, but 
when the Avater is filled with new comers there 
is no time to be wasted in prolonged struggles, 
and as soon as one gallant is driven out of a 
contest he turns his attention to the nearest 
other charmer that may be landing. And thus 
affairs are so conducted that the honors are 
pretty evenly distributed along the water front 
and for a few rows ])ack from the landing; but 
the elderly rakes to the rear are often left to 
sigh in celibacy all summer, while more fortunate 
lords of the seal kingdom revel in the Utopian 
luxury of fifteen wives apiece. 

There are several classes of male seals which 
are deprived of the delights and refining in- 
fluences of female society. There are young 
])achelors which have never yet had the courage 
to go in and fight for a claim, being apparently 
awed into remaining at a respectable and safe 
distance from the potent brown and tawny 
seniors. These young fellows haul out in 
crowds of thousands by themselves close to the 



SEALS Km SAG QUE S. 99 

water and not far distant from the seraglios. 
They are from one to four or live years old, 
and the}^ alternate their pastimes between 
lying on their l^acks among the rocks — where 
the}^ fan their heated bodies with a hind flipper, 
if it is a warm dry day — and getting down into 
the water in front of the old Turks' sunnner 
residences where they endeavor with varying 
success to draw the females into sly flirta- 
tions. 

Notwithstanding the fierce jealousy with 
which the females are watched and guarded, 
and contrary to what would be expected from 
their meek and sanctified appearance, there 
are breaches of decorum occasionally, which no 
conscientious person would attempt to defend, 
and elopements which, of course, cannot be 
excused and may be, possibly, never forgiven. 
Some of these romantic aftairs lead to serious 
consequences, many a young fellow retiring 
from them so out of repair as to seriously depre- 
ciate his marketal)le value. 

In cases of elopement the gay Lothario is 
generally handled according to the custom of 
the world in such cases, and his guilty partner 
treated with great leniency ; but there are excep- 
tions. Instead of quietly and carefully taking 
her by the back of the neck and carrying her to 



100 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the domestic circle as at first landiiio', her lord 
and master, provoked out of further forl)ear- 
ance by frequent escapades, Avill sometimes 
irallop through the family, knocking his other 
wives riofhtand left, bouncinof over the babies in 
his anger and indignation, and, overtaking the 
female fleeing from her home, thrashes her so 
soundly with his flii)pers that she puts up her 
little nose to his, kisses him in token of sub- 
mission and better l)ehavior, and then creeps 
back, apparently subdued and deeply penitent. 

It is painful, however, to be compelled to 
admit that man}' elopements succeed, particu- 
larly toward the close of the season, when the 
lords of the rookeries are worn out ^vith watch- 
ing and fasting. Then the young fellows out 
in the surf practice their most fascinating antics 
to attract attention, and many a mother, osten- 
sibly going down to teach her l)al)y seal to 
swim, returns no more, and so, gradually, the 
social circle on shore is broken up for the 
season. 

Seal killing on these islands for furs is nearly 
all done in about six weeks — from June 10 to 
July 20. When seals are wanted for meat the 
''pups" are preferred, but for fur the four-year 
olds are considered best. Awkward as seals 
may appear when moving on land, the\' can get 



SEALSKIN SAGQUES. 101 

over the ground as fast, for a few rods and 
under favorable circumstances, as a man would 
care to run. Their powers of locomotion are 
almost entirely confined to the forequarters, the 
gutta-percha-like character of the flippers serv- 
ing to raise the body and propel it forward. 
Tiie hinder portion of the body, when the seal 
travels on land, works somewhat after the 
fashion of an angle worm or caterpillar, gather- 
ing itself together and springing forward as if 
connected with the forequarters by some power- 
ful elastic attachment. With the fore flippers 
the seal can raise itself upon a rock or knoll two 
feet in height, and as the animal is strong the 
hinder parts are compelled to follow. The hind 
flippers, which act as rudders when in the 
water, drag along when the animal moves on 
land, like a couple of four-l)utton kid gloves 
pinned upon the rear extremity of a lady's 
dress. In the water they are quite handy for 
steering, but on land they only go for orna- 
ments, or for fans on proper occasions. 

The best time for driving fur seals is on a 
rainy day, when the sun is obscured and the 
grass is wet, enabling the hinder portion of the 
body to slide along as easily and elegantly as a 
dress-train on a velvet carpet. On a dry, sun- 
shiny day they cannot be driven, but, becoming 



102 A TRIP TO ALASKA, 

heated, full prostmte, and will not rise for any 
amount of threatening. On such da^^s, too, if 
not disturbed, they lie on their backs at the 
hauling places, fanning themselves with their 
hind flippers, the rookeries then reminding one 
of the fluttering in a crowded theatre or full 
church during the heated term ; but the seal 
fans are black and noiseless, the latter bein<r a 
quality not sufiiciently considered by some 
ladies in cultured assemblages. 

Seals being fat and scant of breath, and 
dressed in an exceedingly inappropriate suit 
for hot weather, seek out a climate of fog 
and rain for their summering places. That is 
one reason why they come to the Prybilov 
Islands, where mists and gloom prevail during 
the summer months, sunshine being a rarity 
and an abomination to the seal hunters. On 
favorable days a band of bachelor seals may be 
driven five or six miles, and when the air is 
very cool, the grass wet, and the sky cloudy, 
they can be pushed a mile in an hour. Yet they 
are not genera 11}^ considered notable pedes- 
trians. For driving, the men carry stafts four 
or five feet in length, and with this weapon 
they go among the seals, opening avenues and 
cutting oft" portions of the band at pleasure. 

The seals are never killed near the "rook- 



SEALSKIN SAC QUE S. ' 103 

eries" or hauling grounds, upon which they land 
from the sea, but are driven away l)ack to the 
settlement when possible, though in some cases 
they are slaughtered at remote points and their 
skins hauled in. But as the pelts weigh about 
eight pounds when first taken off, or ten pounds 
when salted, there is a great saving in transpor- 
tation to compel them to carry their own skins 
and blubber in when practicable. 

On the afternoon of our first arrival at St. 
Paul's, a band which had been driven three miles 
and a half was seen halted on a hill, unable to 
proceed, owing to the warmth of the dif>% al- 
though it was not distressing us to walk about 
in overcoats. In the evening, however, they 
were pushed down to a lagoon, where they soon 
became cool, after which they moved along 
without much troul)le. 

At six o'clock next morning killing com- 
menced. Just l^efore this hour twenty or thirty 
natives were seen going out to the drove, about 
half a mile from the village. They might have 
been taken for a party of machinists organ- 
ized into base-ball clubs. Nearly all wore caps 
and were dressed in blue denims overalls and 
jumpers. About a dozen of the party carried 
hickory clubs of the diameter of a base-ball bat, 
but five feet in length. The others had knives. 



104 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Arriving on the ground the drivers were 
found to have cut off about one-hfth of the l)and, 
and were giving the smaller body a chance to 
cool off. After a few minutes a nuni])er not to 
exceed fifty or sixty were driven up toward the 
killers, who stood close together. As soon as 
the small hand arrived at the fatal spot tliey 
were surrounded 1)}' the men with clu])s, who 
proceeded Avitli the utmost diligence to raj) 
them on the nose or between the eyes. A 
smart rap of a base-ball clul) on the tip of a fur 
seal's nose puts him beyond recovery. Some 
are killed by being hit between their large, 
soft, intelligent eyes (the memor}^ of which 
would haunt any but seal-killers), and others 
fall senseless from a blow on the back of the 
neck. One group after another was brought 
forward and knocked down so rai)idly that in 
less than three hours nine hundred and ninety- 
seven seals had l>een killed and skinned. Out 
of each small band driven u\) to the killers, at 
least tw^enty per cent were turned awa}', this 
practice being pursued in order to keep up the 
supply from year to year. 

After tlie clul)bers followed two or three men 
with knives, who cut a short slit in the skin 
between the fore flippers and then stab]:)ed the 
seal to the heart. Next succeeded the rippere, 



SEALSKIN SACQUES. 105 

who split the skin lengthwise along the belly 
and cut around the neck and flippers to make 
way for the skinners, who will not permit their 
blades to touch the outer portion of the hide, 
wdiere sand might dull the keen edges. On an 
average the skins are removed in two minutes 
each and thrown beside the carcass, whence 
they are hauled to the salting iiouse. The skins, 
when hauled from the killing ground, are salted 
down in large bins, where they remain al)out a 
week, wdien they are removed and i)iled in tiers 
in the w^arehouse, like cured bacon in a pork- 
packing establishment. When sufficiently salted 
they are prepared for shi})ment by rolling two 
skins together, the flesh-sides facing, after 
which they are tied, forming a bundle al)out 
four inches in thickness and ten in length. In 
San Francisco they are packed in casks and o-o 
to London in that condition. 

In London they are put through a course of 
treatment which destroys the grease and re- 
moves the long hairs, which stand out as a 
protection to the fur. This is done by shavino; 
the flesh down and pulling the hairs out by 
machinery. After the skin has been suflSciently 
manipulated in these processes, it is dyed, and 
this is said to be the most important matter of 
all in connection with its treatment. It is as- 



106 A TRIP TO ALAi^KA. 

serted and denied that the skins can be success- 
fully dyed in the United States, but at all events 
London controls the business at present. 

AVhere the fur seals go, and upon what they 
subsist when al)sent from the place where they 
''most do breed and haunt," is a matter of much 
speculation. They arrive at the rookeries and 
hauling grounds fat and sleek in the sunnner. 
The}' remain for months without eating, and 
then, their numbers increased by })erhaps a 
million of ''pups," they disappear in the autumn 
poor and ''stagey," to reappear in lirst-class 
condition at the usual time next year. 

From the circumstance that occasional fur 
seals are killed off the coast of British Columbia 
and Southeastern Alaska, and that a few are 
taken among the Aleutian Islands as they 
journey southward, it is supposed by some ob- 
servers that they follow the coast line, keeping 
a certain distance out to sea. But while they 
leave the Pr\d)ilov Islands in a swarm of mil- 
lions, they are never seen in great numl)ers 
away from here. Close ol)servation and occa- 
sional marking by some disfiguration lead peo- 
ple on the islands to believe that the seals 
return not only to the same islands, but that 
some of the old bulls occup}^ the identical spot 
of beach over which they rule for years. 



SEALSKIN SACQUES. 107 

Leaving these islands the seals probably scat- 
ter out tiirough the Pacitic in different direc- 
tions in search of hsh, the finding of which in 
sufficient (juantities for the immense herd to- 
gether would seem to be almost hnpossible. 
They are supposed to feed on fish and kelp, — 
that prolific product of the ocean which is found 
floating in nearly all latitudes, being torn from 
its rock)" l)ed by storms and carried around the 
world upon tides and currents. Kelp furnishes 
the food for the seal, and it collects in tangled 
masses to form a couch for the shy sea otter, 
which sleeps upon it in a gale, and it has been 
used to soothe the hungry stomach of many a 
hunter who for da} s had failed to find other food. 

While it is belieyed tliat fish and kelp form 
the chief article of seal subsistence, the seal, as 
stated, can live for months on his inner con- 
sciousness or l)lubber which is strongly flavored 
with seaweed. The stomach of a seal cut o|)en 
on the islands proves to be quite empty. It 
reveals nothing of its owner's habits. It is a 
mystery. 

The manufacture of oil from seal Idubber 
may be nuich more satisfactorily studied from 
a written descri})tion than in the factor}', for it 
is not productive of the most refined odors. 
When seal oil was made upon the islands tlie 



108 A TRIP TO ALASKA.^ 

" blubber-snatchers " followed the skinners and 
stripped the carcass a second time, removing 
the fat from all around the body in one sheet, 
which was rolled up and carted to the oil fac- 
tory, where it was dumped into a wooden vat. 
The vats were supplied with steam from a 
boiler under ninety 'pounds pressure. Five or 
six wagon-loads of blul)ber were thrown into a 
vat, which was closed at the top, the steam 
turned on, and the boiling process continued for 
twelve to fifteen hours, at the end of which 
time the oil was pressed out and raised by cold 
water and run off the top into casks holding 
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and 
eighty gallons each. 

Carcasses of the seal killed for their fur yield 
about half a oallon of oil each when thev are 
fat, but as the season advances they yield less, 
living by absorption of their own grease. In 
firing under the boiler, seal carcasses, blubber, 
l)ones, and flesh were used for fuel, and a 
Avarm fire the}' make, but the firemen must be 
relieved frequently, for the stench of the l)oil- 
ing blubber and of the burning bodies combined 
is too much for any set of human nerves to en- 
dure long at any one time. Since the foregoing 
was written, oil-making on our seal islands has 
been discontinued as unprofitable. 



CHAPTEE XL 

COMMUNISTIC. 

THE natives of St. FiinVs iind St. George's 
islands live in a sort of communistic state, 
and are, withal, purse-proud aristocrats. They 
perform a few days' lal)or for the company out- 
side of seal-taking, for which they are paid at 
the rate of ten cents per hour. All earnings 
for killing seals are distinbuted pro rata in 
classes, not only to those who work according 
to their ability, hut to some who are una1)le to 
perform any labor. They are not frugal in 
their hal)its. They spend the greater part of 
their money on luxuries. Having house rent, 
fuel, fish and seal meat, doctor and school- 
master free, they look around for something to 
l)uy. For the one hundred and twenty women 
on one island the company carries up a hundred 
dozen tine silk handkerchiefs which are gen- 
erally worn on the head, a hundred dozen line 
worsted colored sto.ckings, almost as many 

109 



110 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

scarfs and nubias, dozens of fine shawls, one 
thousand two hundred yards of calico (some of 
these seal-killers' wives have a dozen dresses 
at a time), three hundred yards of other dress 
goods and flannels, with three suits of clothino-, 
boots, and ca})s for every man and boy in the 
village, and good cassimere clothing is the kind 
they demand. 

For food supplies on one island they have 
thirty-live thousand pounds of biscuit and 
crackers and two hundred and thirty barrels of 
flour ; seventy chests of tea, lifty-two pounds 
each ; four hundred boxes candles, stearine and 
paraffine ; one thousand sacks of rice, fifty 
pounds each ; one thousand gallons kerosene, 
etc. 

A few 3'ears ago these same natives lived 
in barabaras (sod huts), twenty-five to forty 
persons in one room. They used blubber lb)- 
lights and fuel till the lampblack hung in strings 
from the ceiling. Now the}^ have frame houses, 
cook-stoves, coal, kerosene, and parafiine can- 
dles. They have good church buildings on 
each island, and schools "with teachers as well as 
doctors, at the expense of the company. 

The natives of the seal islands are not long- 
lived. Sixty is old age, to which few ever 
reach, and even those of fifty are scarce. The 



COMMUmSTIO. Ill 

population has not increased to any appreciable 
extent since the United States came into posses- 
sion. 

Like all other Aleuts, the natives of the seal 
islands die generally of consumption. When 
it once appears it makes rapid work, and in a 
few days its victim is laid away. Whatever may 
be the restorative qualities of fish-oil or blubber, 
it does not seem to benefit these people. They 
all eat enormously of these commodities, and, as 
a rule, die early. When attacked, physicians 
are in vain, and the patient falls at once into 
a condition of hopeless indifference, generally 
refusing medicine, or neglecting to take it dur- 
ing the doctor's absence. 

These Y)eople give liberally toward the support 
of their church, and ])uy man}^ blessed candles 
at high prices. The church decorations of silver 
chandeliers, candelabras, and pictures are both 
elaborate and expensive. Large gilt candles 
have been sent from the San Francisco Consis- 
tory at the rate of three for fifty dollars, and, 
though this was considered high, they were paid 
for. They were large candles, it is true, but, 
judging from the material of which they are 
composed, they should not cost more than four 
or five dollars each, even including the rather 
tawdry gilding upon their surfaces. But the 



112 A THIP TO ALASKA. 

seal-islanders believe in blessed candles and 
can afford to pay for them. 

The "second" priest, or "striker," as he is 
sometimes denominated by irreverent Yankees, 
the "second mate," as the sailors call him, is 
an institution of the Russian Church in Alaska. 
The second priest can hold services, but is' not 
endowed with the right to perform the marriage 
ceremony. He leads the choir and attends on 
the first priest at mass. Sometimes the mar- 
riage ceremony is waived by parties entering 
into the marital state in the absence of a first 
priest, but when that individual comes around, 
he makes it all right, and it is considered that 
no harm has been done. 

The vestments worn by the priest are very 
rich, but sometimes when he appears in gar- 
ments of gold and white, with cavahy boots 
below, as often happens, the effect strikes 
strangers as l)eing strong and novel rather than 
strictly ecclesiastic. It speaks somewhat loudly 
of church militant. 

There is no beer nor whiskey to be had by 
the natives of the fur-seal islands. The Treas- 
ury Department forbids the manufacture here or 
the introduction of beverages of an intoxicating 
character. Eflbrts have been made in other 
Aleutian settlements to prevent the maiujfac- 



COMMUNISTIC. 113 

tare of "qiiass," a sort of sour beer manuftic- 
turecl out of sugar, flour, and water ; but where 
there are two or more trading companies in 
competition, the sugar can l)e obtained from 
one, if not from the other, and the su})pression 
of the traffic in such a comnumity is ahnost 
impossil)le. On the fur-seal ishmds, however. 
Treasury and company agents unite in efforts to 
suppress the manufacture of strong drink. It 
was, for a long time, difficult to reconcile these 
Aleuts to getting along without spirits. Under 
Russian rule it was the custom to issue spirits 
to the men when at work, and this created an 
ap[)etite, Avhich was sought to be alhiyed by 
other drink when merchantable whiskey could 
not be had. 

Great trouble is now experienced hf the 
company's traders elsewhere, owing to the 
natives o:ettino: intoxicated and raisins^ disturb- 
ances, and it is a source of satisfaction to the 
assents on the fur-seal islands that thev have 
been able to put an end to the manufacture of 
"quass." Even the old natives, who Avere the 
most difficult to wean, have become reconciled 
to total abstinence, and the fact that thev have 
money in bank, and better houses, clothing, and 
food than were had when whiskey and ''quass" 
prevailed, teaches them that fire-water is the 



114 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

most expensive luxury poor peo})le can indulge 
in. 

Teti is now the strongest beverage that these 
people absorb. The tea used here is of a 
superior quality, the same chop as that fur- 
nished by the Kussians years and years ago. 
The peoi)le don't want any other kind, and the 
company is perfectly willing to provide that 
which they prefer. 

The seal islands are situated in Behring Sea, 
and during the warmer months are almost con- 
tinually enveloped in fogs and mist. That is 
one reason why the seals make tliem their 
breeding grounds. There is no such thing in 
the seal business as "making hay while the sun 
shines," for the sun will drive the warm-coated 
animals into the water, when men with clubs 
could not do it ; for though the two and four- 
year-olds may be herded and driven like sheep, 
the older bulls, Avhen on the rookeries, cannot 
be forced away by threats of violence. Con- 
tinued sunshine, however, Avould soon banish 
them from the islands. 

St. Georo:e's Island, which, on a clear dav, 
can be seen from St. Paul's, is an ei)itonie 
of the larger one. The population, at the last 
count, was one hundred and two persons. They 
have a church, school-house, and frame dwell- 



(COMMUNISTIC. 115 

ings for the people, provided by the compan}^ 
which controls in all these matters and fur- 
nishes the modern improvements according to 
the ideas of its officers, Avhose suggestions in 
these matters are adopted. 

Near Garden Cove, on the southeast coast of 
St. George's Island, is a large sea-lion rookery, 
the beach being red with the monsters, which 
lay packed together like hogs in a stock car 
ofoins: to market. The sea lion is found also on 
St. Paul's, but not so numerously as on St. 
Georsre's. The sea lion seems to be more like 
an overgrown seal, larger than the fur-seal bulls, 
but their coat consists of hair only, which is of 
a coarse reddish ])rown. The flesh of the sea 
lion is preferred to that of the fur seal, and the 
hide, while having no value in the markets of 
the world, is in great demand among the Aleuts 
and Indians of the Northern Pacific and Behring 
Sea. The leather is, however, used to a limited 
extent on emery wheels for polishing in cutlery 
factories. 

The flippers of the sea lion are used for soles 
of the Aleut waterproof ])oots ; the skin is 
converted into coverings for the large open 
boats known as " bidarras." These boats con- 
sist of a frame of wood with ribs imported 
from the Eastern States. The lion skins, the 



116 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

hair shaved off, are stretched over the frame, 
fifteen or twenty being sewed together, and 
when drj' they are as tight as a drum. These 
boats are constructed a])out forty feet in length 
and ten or twelve feet Ijcam, with a carrying 
capacity of from two to four tons. 

The bidarra is the favorite craft Avith the 
seal islanders as the two-hole bidarkie is Avith 
the Western Aleuts, the three-holed with the 
Kadiackers, and the fiftv'-foot cedar dugouts 
with the Hy da Indians. The natives of difterent 
localities stick to their old ideas with the most 
obdurate prejudice, those who use the two- 
holed ])idarkie and doul)le-bladed paddle being 
near neighbors to those who insist on a three- 
holed boat and single-bhided paddle. The 
l)idarra is also the favorite with the Indians of 
Behring Straits, being navigated In" them from 
the American to the Asiatic shore. 

Sea Otter Island, lying about five miles south- 
w^ardly from St. Paul's, is another landing-place 
for the fur seal, ])ut only to a limited extent. 
Owing to the lact that it is not permanently 
inhabited, some marauders Avere in the habit of 
landing on the opposite side, where they could 
not be seen from St. Paul's, and killing what- 
ever seal they could find, without regard to sex, 
age, or condition. The company reported . 



COMMUNIS TIC. 117 

these facts to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
who decided that the intention of the act under 
which the lease was authorized appeared to l)e 
to give all the islands of the group to the 
lessees, for the regulation of the traffic and 
preservation of the fur seal. Then, as the 
company could not defend Sea Otter Island, 
the Government was asked to do so, and no^v 
the practice is to leave a revenue marine guard 
there during the sealing season. 

Sea Otter Island is famous for sea fowls' 
eggs, and also for foxes, wdiich latter so infest 
the place that a former revenue marine officer 
experienced great difficulty in keeping the pests 
from destroying everything destroyal^le in his 
cabin. Birds' eo<rs buried beneath the floor 
were ravished by these cunning animals, which, 
during the officer's absence, dug under the avails 
and made their way into the house. They are 
principally blue foxes, such as are found on St. 
Paul's and St. George's. 

There is one more, Walrus Island, in the 
Prybilov group, about six miles eastward from 
St. Paul, to which male walruses resort in con- 
siderable numbers each year. It is also famous 
for sea fowd, wdiich resort thither in countless 
millions for breeding purposes. But no fur 
seals are killed by the lessees upon either Otter 
or Walrus islands. 



118 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

As only ntitives may be employed to kill the 
seals, no whites are permitted to remain upon 
the Prybilov Islands unless either in the service 
of the United States or of the Alaska Commer- 
cial Company — except the Kussian priests. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE FUR AVEST. 

aOING from the fur seal islands to Attou 
we lost a day. Not that we had merely 
Avasted twenty-four hours, but we were a day 
behmd the Attou people in our account of 
time. 

AYe followed Greeley's advice to an extreme 
degree. AYe Avent west until we arrived in east 
lono'itude. Havino- crossed the one hundred 
and eightieth meridian Avest from GreeuAvich we 
Avere a day slower by our reckoning than the 
real time. According to the log-book of the 
"Rush" and the private journals of those on 
board, this page Avas Avritten on Saturday, June 
21. According to the people of Attou it Avas 
Sunday, June 22. 

The bells of the little church on shore were 
nncrino' out at eioht o'clock in the mornino- for 
earl}' mass, the American tiag was flying, and 
the people were Avearing their very best calicoes 
and newest bird-skin "parkas." 

119 



120 A TRIP TO ALA.SKA. 

AttoLi is the most Avesterly of our Aleutian 
islands, the extreme western settlement of the 
United States, and onh^ two hundred miles from 
Copper Island, the nearest Russian possession, 
which from its situation would appear to ])e 
a continuation of the volcanic reef stretching 
across the Pacific from the peninsula of Alaska 
to Kamtschatka, which latter is but a trifle over 
four hundred miles from this island. This dis- 
tance is so short and the route so natural that 
connnunication l)et\veen Asia and America this 
way thousands of years ago may be assumed to 
have occurred often enough to stamp a record 
on the features of our a])origines, so-called. 

The Aleuts have a form, face, and stature 
similar to some of the Asiatic races, and if the 
Indians on the main land are taller, leaner, and 
more muscular, that fact may be due to different 
conditions of life through man}^ generations. 

Take two couples of one trilie and place 
them in difterent climates Avhere they subsist 
on difterent food and practice difterent exer- 
cises and games, pursuing difterent occupations, 
two hunting in boats, the others indulging in 
the chase on horseback or on foot, and in a few 
generations the successors of the tAvo couples 
Avould present Avhat might at ftrst appear to 
be distinct races of people, speaking different 



THE FUR WEST. 1"21 

tons^ues, thoii<>h traces of Ji common orioiu 
mii^'Iit 1)0 fbiiiul. Such a condition of atfaii's 
would account for the ditference between our 
Aleuts and inland tribes of Indians. 

Terenty Prokopieft*, the " Tyone " or Chief of 
Attou, is an Aleut, tifty-five years of age. He 
is a deacon or sub-priest of the Russian Church, 
reads and writes in Russian, and is agent of the 
Alaska Commercial Company, who have a store 
here. There are stories current of many wrecks 
from the East coming on shore here, but the 
Tyone knows of only two occurring in his time. 
In 1853 a Japanese junk came ashore keel 
uppermost, and at the same time three dead 
bodies were found on the beach, none being- 
left to tell the tale of their voyage further than 
might be inferred from inverted bark and stark 
corpses. But in 1861 another junk from Japan 
was discovered by some otter-hunters Avho Avere 
out at sea in bidarkies from Attou. 

The hunters were shy of the strangers, who 
also had fears for their lives, visions of pirates 
and cannibals scudding athwart the excited 
imaginations of both parties. The xVleuts 
[)addled hurriedly toward shore, and, encour- 
aged by this turn in aftairs and urged by 
necessity, the vo3^agers from another land 
followed. They got on shore, when it was 



122 A TRIP TO AL.L^KA. 

discovered to the inhabitants of the island 
that their visitors consisted of only three 
Japanese, who had been drifting for days 
without provisions and without water, four 
of their shipmates, including their captain and 
mate, having died at sea. 

The storm-tossed Asiatics Avere taken in ])y 
the hospitable Aleuts, kept here for eight 
months till the arrival of the steamer Alex- 
ander, which conveyed them to Eastern Si- 
beria, where they disembarked to make their 
way home overland. There are no records 
here in Attou of the first coming of ships 
from the westward, nor have the present 
people any idea of their origin bej'ond a 
tradition of a hazy character. 

The old people here talk of wars long 
since, time without date, l^etween the inhab- 
itants of Attou and those of islands to the 
eastward. A common story is that on one 
occasion the people of Atka, live hundred 
miles to the eastward, ctune to Attou and 
proceeded to exterminate the natives. When 
they departed they congratidated themselves 
on their complete success and went home 
rejoicing. Three or four years afterward, 
however, some hunters discovered that one 
woman had escaped, and lived to wander 



THE FUR WFST. 123 

about all this time in solitude as £>'reat as 
that experienced \)y Ko])inson Crusoe. 

Pitj'ing her lone condition or repenting- their 
al)()rtive attempt at complete extermination, 
they left one of their own number here, and 
the result was the repopulation of the island. 
This sounds somewhat like an Oriental tale 
of the origin of a people, and whether true 
or false it is hardly worth contradictinof. Similar 
stories are told of other portions of Alaska. 

It is said that three hundred and fifty 
3^ears ago fierce Avars prevailed between the 
men of Kadiak and those of Onalaska. Ex- 
cursions were frequent from one island to the 
other, seven hundred miles distant, and it gen- 
erally occurred that the attacking party, got 
the best of these fights, a result of Avhich 
was that the victors carried the women of 
the vanquished away to their own dominions. 
This necessitated retaliation and the carrying 
of the opposite party's women home by way 
of reprisals. It was like the matches and 
return games of base-ball clubs, cricketers, 
and sharp-shooters of the present day in the 
United States, except there was more real 
sport, less eating and drinking, and more valu- 
able prizes, it is to be hoped. 

The population of Attou consists of one hun- 



124 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

(Ired and thirt^^-two persons, the poorest of the 
poor among the Aleutians. The Tyone, how- 
ever, can remenil)er when the island contained 
a great many more people, who have died or 
gone to hunt a living where it may be more 
certainly obtained. These one hundred and 
thirty-two persons, of whom onh' thirtj'-four 
men and boys are able to hunt, OAve the Alaska 
(Commercial Compan}^ live thousand dollars for 
goods to keep them alive. There was a time 
when Attou was considered the centre of the 
best sea-otter-hunting region in Behring Sea, 
but wanton cruisers came in as soon as the Eus- 
sians were bought out, and with guns con- 
stantly in the hands of their hunters in small 
boats, hunting at all seasons, discharging lire- 
arms, leaving offal upon the rocks and islands, 
the otter l)egan to disappear rapidl\\ The rev- 
enue steamers coming into these waters later 
have driven the maraudino- schooners awav, Init 
serious damage was done before their coming. 
During Russian rule, the Tyone sa^-s, the 
people here captured from three hundred to 
seven hundred sea otter a jeaw but of late 
years from twenty to thirty skins are all that 
they get. The company has lieen trying to get 
the people of this island to move to the main- 
land, where they could be supported at less 



THE FUR WEST. 125 

cost. But, like other poor people, those of 
Attou cling to their impoverished homes, which 
consist merely of a few earthen huts, with not a 
hundred dollars worth of furniture in the entire 
settlement. But the bones of their dead rela- 
tives are buried here in the sand beside the half 
underground habitations of the living, and there- 
fore the people refuse to go. 

The store may be taken away, but the agent, 
who is Tyone and deacon, will remain with 
his people, and with them trust to the sea to 
furnish them food, clothing, and fuel. Some 
of these Attou people go now for a year with- 
out tea or flour, unless in case of sickness, when 
the agent issues some indispensible article out 
of the company's stock, and enters the proper 
amount of debit upon the company's books, 
without much hope of ever seeing the account 
cancelled, unless the otter comes back. This 
seems to be a remote contingenc}', but possibly 
it may occur. 

Of vegetables, canned goods, and the many 
little comforts of civilization these people know 
nothing except by tradition. Now, in the sum- 
mer solstice, the peaks, two thousand feet in 
height, surrounding the settlement, are covered 
Avith snow, drifts of which, fallen last winter, 
still lie in the iridches at the rear of the huts. 



126 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Nearly all the children run about barefooted 
and barelegged, with a little shirt or bird-skin 
gown as their only covering. At least, most of 
them were in that condition until the arrival of 
the ''Rush," the officers of which, seeing their 
destitution last year, came provided on this 
cruise with bags of clothing, not onl}^ for the 
children, but for Avonien, some of whom were 
but scantily arrayed for either sunnner or Avin- 
ter. They have been filled up, too, with bread 
and — what the}^ prize most of all — good tea, 
with sugar to sweeten it. This makes them 
ha})py for the time, and they look forward to a 
year's diet on dried fish, as the staple article of 
food, with the consoling confidence that another 
day will come next summer, when the little 
steamer may drop anchor in the harl)or, to 
afford them another season of tea and l)read, 
with second-hand dresses for the women and 
children. 

Even Attou, poor and destitute as the people 
are, has a church, and, although no i)riest has 
l)een here for several years, services are held on 
every Sunday, conmiencing on Saturday even- 
ing at sunset. The rite of baptism is adminis- 
tered by the chief, but he cannot perform the 
marriage ceremony nor administer communion. 
When the next priest comes he will have i)lenty 



THE FUR WEST. 127 

to do tightening the matrimonial knots that 
have been loosely formed in tlie interim. 

The hHn])er in the little church, the walls of 
which are not higher than a man's head, has 
been sawed out of driftwood, most of it prob- 
ably coming from the Yucon Kiver. A frame 
of four uprights, with as many cross-pieces and 
a whi})-saw, constitute the luml)er factory at At- 
tou ; and the sea furnishes the logs, for not a 
stick of timber as large as a bean-pole grows 
upon any of the Aleutian Islands. The roof of 
the church is thatched with dried grass, which 
here grows tall and coarse, one variety like 
wild rye. 

Just outside of the front door of the church 
is a little pavilion or belfry, upon the top of 
which a man standing upon the ground could 
put his hand. Under the four-«r>ided roof of 
this modest structure hang tAvo bells green with 
age and dampness. X\\ the churches in these 
settlements have a numl^er of bells, that at St. 
Paul's boasting a full octave, but in other and 
humbler communities there are from two to five 
bells, handed down from the days of Eussian 
rule. In Sitka and Onalaska they hang high 
in towers above the church, aspiring to the 
heavens, but in poor places, such as Attou, they 
are found close to the earth, though possibly 



128 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

drawing worshippers quite as near to God. 
After cliiuch on Sunday evening it is no harm 
to have a dance ; but on Saturday evening such 
a step is a sin in Alaska. 

If the original Aleuts were not worshippers 
of the sea, it must have heen because when they 
were cast away here from the Asiatic coast 
their idol-worshipi)ing proclivities could not be 
washed out of them by the illimitable waters. 
But had Christians never discovered this peo- 
ple, and had some aboriginal religious reformer 
risen among them, he must certainly have 
located the All-good in the sea. It was to the 
sea that they originally looked for food, rai- 
ment, fuel, and means of locomotion. They 
remain in that condition to the present day. A 
few berries grow upon the Aleutian Islands, 
but there is not an island from Sitka to Attou 
that is fit for agricultural purposes. II()\v could 
there be, with snow^ on all the hills, down to 
the waters edge in midsummer? 

The sun is worshipped by many people as 
the origin of the principle of life, l;ut how 
could reverential thoughts be directed to that 
orb in a land where he is not visilde once a 
month? AVhat good could come from so cold 
and careless a God ? Rut the sea In'ings tish, on 
which the Aleuts live year in and year out. It 



THE FUR WEST. 129 

furnishes sea-otter, the fur of which is of the 
finest, and, before being taken in hand by the 
Christians of the Czar, these barbarians could 
afford to wear sea-otter cloaks. The sea is the 
home of the waterfowl which furnishes eggs and 
poultry. When tish, eggs, and fowl fail, sea- 
urchins are made to suppl}' their places, and in 
seasons of greatest distress kelp becomes an 
article of food. The sea brinos wood for fuel 
and timl)er for the interiors of their earthen 
huts, and upon the bosom of the waters these 
people paddle in buoyant barks of sea-lion skin 
for business or pleasure. They owe nothing to 
the land but their mud hovels, and the island 
was upheaved from the generous sea to afford 
them their resting-place. The sea is virtually 
their home and their existence. Without it 
they must die. 

No flour, no vegetables of any sort are seen 
in most of these Aleutian huts from beginning 
to end of the year. Fish is their staple, and, 
for long times together, their only article of 
food, lubricated occasionally by oil ; and fish are 
plentiful around all of these islands. Here 
they have salmon, trout, flounders, codfish, and 
a sort of kelpfish, very fat but delicate and 
nutritous. This is the best of all, though 
salmon forms the crreatest source of sui^idy. 



130 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

The kolp-fish is about the size of mackerel, hut 
the stripes upon its 1)0(1\' are shaded from a dull 
browQ to a bright yellow. At first o-lance the 
stripes remind one of the dee[) brown kelp, 
touched out with yellow ochre. These tish can- 
not be caught with hook and h*ne, but are 
s[)eared down among the rocks, and con- 
sequentl\' they can only be taken in smooth 
water. They, like salmon, are dried for winter 
use. 

The salmon here are not large, nor, at this 
season, fat. They are dry and almost without 
flavor. The men of the steamer hauled a seine 
at the mouth of a creek near the villao-e and 
caught a sufficient supply of salmon for use on 
the vovao-e, and thouah the tish, Avhen cleaned 
and laid out, had l)right orange color within, 
which, tipped at the tail and edged at the sides 
with silver, presented a pretty picture they 
were generally pronounced poor eating, this 
is a delicacy, of course. For a steady diet, 
\vitli not much else to accompany it, no doubt 
salmon is a most valual)le article of food, for 
its very dryness insures the possil)ilit3' of its 
being eaten for a long time without repugnance. 

The women of Attou are of a retiring dis- 
position, and though ^they may be poor and 
hungry, do not beg — except for tobacco. After 



THE FUR WEST. 131 

all they have endured through lack of food and 
clothing, filling them up Avith tea and bread and 
putting clean dresses upon them, still leaves a 
want vvdiich only tobacco can supply. It may 
be discouraging, but it is true. Savages and 
barbarians seem to have a natural cravins: for 
the weed, although its use is supposed in civil- 
ized countries to be the result of a cultivated 
or perverted taste — according to the views of 
those who use or eschew it. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ISLANDS, EOCKS, AND MUMMIES. 

TT^YSIIKA is one of the most interesting 
-^^ places we yisited. The island, one of 
the Aleutian chain, runs to sharp points, which 
look as though they would wash awa>% but it 
is a solid rock at bottom nearly all the way 
around, and it stands the assaults of the sea 
very well. The settlement was supposed not 
to be of a permanent character. About twenty- 
five hunters Avere brought here in May from 
Atka, an island three hundred miles to the east- 
ward, for sea-otter hunting, and they were to 
return in the fall. They ])roright their families 
with them, and fixed up barabaras in a sand 
ridge so steep and narrow that the dwellings on 
one side, facing the sea, might be opened into 
those behind them, facing inland, in a few hours 
by a couple of sappers and miners. All of the 
habitations of these people were huddled to- 
gether irregularly, wherever the formation of 
the ridge was such as to offer a chance for the 
132 



ISLANDH, KOVKS, AND MUMMIES. 133 

greatest amount of underground space with the 
least amount of digging. The people here 
numbered one hundred and one persons. 

Looking around, as you stand upon the sum- 
mit of this ridge, you see nothing that looks 
like human habitations, but, descending to either 
side, a small door, three feet in height and a 
foot and a half in width, may be seen. The 
ground is so dug out as to form a descending 
grade toward the door. Above the surface is a 
small mound of sand, which looks as if it might 
have been blown up by the wind, having no 
regular form. Grass in scattered bunches waves 
upon the mound, as it does on other portions 
of the ridge. 

To enter at the little doorway a man must 
cither turn his face toward the outside and go 
in back^\ ard, which movement affords an oppor- 
tunity to reach one leg down into the descend- 
ing hallwi;y, or he can get down upon his 
haunches and squeeze through, his shoulders 
rubbing the top of the entrance as he 1:>ends his 
head so as not to bump it. The visitor will 
then descend along a corridor or outward apart- 
ment, where the small fireplace is set off beneath 
a hole in the roof to the inner room, where the 
Aleut can stand erect, but the average Ameri- 
can bows his head to save the rafters. Here, 



134 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

in an apartment about six by eight feet on the 
sides, reside the Aleutian otter-hunter, his wife, 
and two or tliree children, and generally one or 
more relativ(!s of either the husband or Avife. 
A short bed on each side accommodates them 
all. The bed consists aeneralh^ of orrass mats 
spread upon the floor within the space defined 
by a pole four or five feet in length, laid upon 
the ground to keep the bedding from going 
adrift around the room. 

Once within, the visitor sees that the walls of 
this Aleutian residence are made by digging the 
sand out, stakes being set up to keep the sides 
from caving in. Uprights, stringers, and rafters 
of driftwood are put up, and sand from the 
hillside shoveled down upon them for a roof. 
The floor and portions of the sides are covered 
with matting made of dried grass ; a box or 
two which hold the clothing of the family, and 
a cheap clock, complete the kit of furniture ; a 
religious picture is in every barabara, and in 
most of them a bottle containing holy water 
hangs beside the sacred work of art, which may 
be worth ten cents by the dozen. A piece of 
transparent sea-lion intestine in the roof serves 
for a skylight. 

Of such hal)itations as that just described 
there are twenty or twenty-five in the sand 



JSLAXjD.S, rocks, and 2IUMMIES. 135 

rido-e overlooking- the Kvslika harbor. The 
church does not greatly differ in architectural 
points from the residences, except that it is 
longer and consists of only one apartment. All 
the other churches Ave have seen in Alaskan 
settlements contrive to have a sanctuary con- 
taining the altar, which is concealed from the 
view of worshippers b}^ a curtain, when the sol- 
emn mystery of the transubstantiation is taking- 
place ; but here circumstances seem not to ad- 
mit of such an apartment Avithout digging into 
the house in the rear. Besides, there is not 
an ordained priest here, the services being only 
such as may be performed by a deacon. Yet 
the people must have a church, though they are 
compelled to stoop down and crawl in one at a 
time, and in spite of the fact that a man cannot 
stand erect against the sides when in. Stand- 
ing upon the ridge the church would not be 
noticed were it not for a small cross sticking up 
in a slightly raised mound of sand, and it is 
only by going around to the low door in front 
that evidences of an entrance into the side of the 
hill are discovered. 

Farther are three wooden double crosses. 
These, surrounded by htibitations of the living, 
indicate the cemetery, three otter-huntors hav- 
ing been capsized and drowned at sea here- 



136 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

abouts a year ago. Such casualties do occur 
notwithstanding the skill used in handling their 
bidarkies. That year the party captured nine- 
ty-two sea-otter, but as 3^et few have been 
taken. 

Only one otter w^as seen around Kyshka 
since the party came in May, — it is now 
June 26, — but all of the men except two are 
out on the reefs and rocks Ij'ing adjacent to 
this island, and by ftdl they may bring 
in enough to make a profitable season of it. 
Whether or not they go back in the fall to 
Atka depends on the agent at Onalaska, who 
regulates these aftairs, sending parties out in 
his schooners when desired, and taking them 
oft' when considered most expedient. 

Although no great amount of fur has as 
yet been obtained, the people seem much 
better o^ than those at Attou, a great deal of 
which may be due to industry. The women 
here are tidy in their dress, and the barabaras 
are kept much neater than in Attou, where one 
could not make a charitable visit without ex- 
periencing a feeling of uneasiness as to what 
might be involuntarily carried away. Possibly 
the mingling with whites, Finlanders, Kussians, 
and others at Atka has led these people into 
ways of^ cleanliness which the more westerly' 



ISLANDS, ROCKS, AND MUMMIES. 137 

Aleuts palpably stand in great need of. A 
large amount of charity in the way of a change 
of clean clothing might well be bestowed upon 
Attou, but at least a box of kitchen soap should 
go with it, and the people should be compelled 
to use it energetically. 

The Aleuts now upon Kyshka are probably 
happier than they would be if in Atka, for 
although they get no fish they have plenty of 
sea-lion meat. At the time of our visit meat 
and flippers were hanging upon poles to dry, 
and the stomachs of sea lions filled with blub- 
ber lay around on the ground ripening. The 
blubber is cut and packed into these paunches, 
which are lari^e enouo'h to hold fifteen or 
twenty gallons, and the opening being securely 
tied, they remain in this condition till decompo- 
sition occurs, when, rancid and unpleasant as it 
would ])e to some people, the oil is acceptable 
to the Aleuts, young and old, as honey to the 
followers of Moses in the desert. From the 
great paunches of the sea lion it is poured into 
bladders and kept at hand readv, like golden 
syrup, to be poured over the dried seal or sea- 
lion meat, or fish, as the case may be, when it 
forms a luxurious lubricator. When the weaned 
baby Avakes up crying in the night, a small skin 
of rancid oil is put to its mouth, and as the 



138 A TRIP TO ALASKA, 

smooth liquid glides down its throat, it acts like 
soothing syrup, and under its magical influence 
the little darling sinks to sleep again and re- 
sumes its pleasant dreams of beautiful angels 
Avith flippers for wings, flocking about the beach 
or in the water. 

In addition to sea lion the women and 
children of Kyshka, whose husl)ands and 
fathers were away hunting the sea -otter, 
were revelling in whale-meat and blubber, a 
grampus having come ashore on the morning 
of our arrival. Consequently they were happy. 
When there is plenty of meat and blubber at 
home and the men are abroad, affairs go on 
quietly but rather monotonously in an Aleutian 
settlement. It requires the men to oljtain 
sugar, manufacture quass, get drunk, and 
beat their wives to drive dull care away. 

In the year 1805 the people of Oumnak 
Island discovered smoke or steam ascendino- 
from the sea about thirty miles to the north- 
ward of them. The vapor was succeeded hy 
fire and ashes, and the volcanic eruption con- 
tinued till an island or rock was created, 
which now forms one of the most strikinii: of 
the Aleutians, all of which are bold and 
picturesque. This latest formation of the 
archipelago, an island known to have been 



ISLANDS, ROCKS, A XI) MUMMIES. 139 

raised up out of the sea within the memory 
of man, was named for St. John, the Theo- 
logian (Bogoslov). Some portions of the 
original formation have fallen down, it would 
appear, for it is certainly not now so large 
as it is reported to have been. Its height 
is about two hundred and seventy feet, and its 
length along the crest from north to south, — 
its lonoest line — is somewhat over five hun- 
dred feet. It rises from the water's edge on 
both sides to a sharp ridge, the walls being 
as steep as a Gothic roof. A few hundred 
yards out from the northernmost extremity 
of the island stands a pillar sixty-seven feet 
high, looking at a distance like a sentinel 
posted to keep w^atch for the approach of an 
enemy. 

As we first saw Bogoslov it loomed dimly 
through the distance of a misty atmosphere in 
a threatening manner, its size being apparently 
magnified l)y the thick weather. As we a}v 
proached, and its dim outlines were sharpened 
into jagged points all along its summits, flocks 
of sea birds began to circle out around the 
steamer, at first keeping a respectful distance, 
but as other flocks sailed out to reinforce the 
skirmishers all came whirling closer and closer 
to inspect the strange visitor, for ships seldom 



140 'A TRIP TO ALAt^KA. 

sail within sight of Boiroslov. Next a band of 
sea lions appeared on our port beam, their 
sharp noses sticking out of the water like liogs, 
making their way toward the rock which is 
their Gibraltar. Looking surprised at the 
steamer, which was between them and the 
island, they tinally settled down out of sii>ht 
beneath the wayes. 

Sharper now became the projections of the 
rock, and the number of l)irds thickened the 
air as we steamed ahead through the mist. Ap- 
proaching still hearer, the sky oyerhanging the 
island was absolutely blackened by birds on the 
wing, that swung and careered oyer their rocky 
home as mosquitoes are seen to darken the air 
at wood-landings in the eyening along the upper 
Missouri Eiyer. The sk}' was almost shut out 
from view by birds. 

At the foot of this immense rock, and from 
end to end, the narrow beach is fringed with 
sea lions which occupy the base as water fowl 
hold possession up above. The foaming waves 
which break on the scattered fallen boulders 
forbid the approach of a boat, and as the sides 
are too stee}) for scaling, the inhabitants above 
and below rest in apparent security' from ma- 
rauding man. The fat, chubby, o])long murre, 
which at first came to meet us in long lines. 



IISLANDS, ROCKS, AND MUMMIES. 141 

circling around the vessel from stem to stern 
Avith sidelong looks, as if inspecting hull and 
rigging, followed us out with an impudent air 
of inviting us to come and get them if Ave could. 

These birds, though strong on the Aving Avhen 
once in the air, are so short and stout that, un- 
less heading toward the wind, they experience 
trouble in risino- from the water. Beino- alarmed 
when floating on the waves they throw out 
their short wings and flap and flutter like gos- 
lings making an unsuccessful attempt at flight. 
With the wind abaft they often fiiil to rise at 
all, and after half-running and flapping on the 
surface of the water for a few rods, their 
webbed feet aiding in sustaining them, they 
suddenly bethink themselves of another Ava}' of 
escape, and, like alarmed prairie dogs starting 
into the first holes they can find, they plunge 
beneath the Avaves, and are seen no more. 

There are other volcanic rocks and islands, 
and there are actiA^e A^olcanoes, too, on the 
course we have traveled from Attou to Boo-os- 
loA", among the most noted of Avhich are the 
Four Mountains. It may be repeated that 
there is not a bit of tame scenery in the Aleu- 
tian Archipelago from the peninsula to the Avest- 
ern limit of our possessions. ^lountains of 
the most picturesque character rise abruptly out 



142 A TRIP TO ALASIvA. 

of the sea, their summits being* veiled in clouds 
or l^anks of mist, their sides covered with 
snow. A\^e have l)een cruisino- alon^: the 
Ahiskan mainland and islands from !May to 
July from Cape Fox to Attou, and never yet 
have "sve seen land without snow. Not alone 
packed liigh u}) in cool crevices, ])ut down 
ahnost to the water's edo-e. Yet the aaricul- 
tural resources of this country are actually 
asserted by certain writers on Alaska to equal 
those of Xew England, Avhere corn cakes and 
pumpkin pies flourish. At Four Mountains, 
one of the islands passed on the run from 
Attou, mummies are found in a cave, and 
though we did not touch at the island and con- 
sequently could not have descended into the 
cave to resurrect any of the remains, the writer 
saw at least one mummy said to have been 
brought from Four Mountains ; and reports of 
them having been once deposited there in num- 
l)ers are too well authenticated to be doubted. 
It is stated that previous to having been con- 
verted to Christianit\^ it was the custom of the 
Aleuts to subject their dead heroes to the con- 
densing influences of a stream of cold water for 
a number of days, after which the " subject *' was 
always placed in a sitting posture Avithin a cave, 
where the flesh hardened and remained upon the 



ISLANDS, ROCKS, AND MUMMIES. 143 

bones. The process was a simple and oftective 
water cure, but is most worthy of consideration 
in contrast with the custom of southeastern 
Alaska and British Columbia Indians, who burn 
the bodies of their dead, while those of the 
plains lay the remains away in tree tops or up 
on poles to dry. On the Aleutian Ishmds fuel 
is so scarce as to be more precious than dead 
bodies, even of heroes, and it could not be ap- 
propriated to cremation, but water was found 
to answer the purposes of preservation and it 
was cheap. In southeastern Alaska and British 
Columbia the supply of wood is, to the Indian 
mind, inexhaustible and there the dead are 
by fire preserved from corruption. On the 
plains the sun-god rarifies the atmosphere till it 
is all-sufficient to mummify the dead body ; and 
so the children of nature live upon nature 
wherever they may be, always having their 
ideas of the future colored by their surround- 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 

"OETURNIXG from the western extremity 
-*-*^ of the Aleutian Islands to Onalaska, the 
"Rush" was coaled, watered, and prepared for 
another cruise. On July 10 she steamed out 
from Onalaska harbor, headed northward, and 
was soon under the encouraging influences of a 
southwesterly^ breeze which promised to be of 
great assistance. On the next day, however, 
the breeze was succeeded by a calm and great 
heavy swells, which came rolling in from the 
quarter whence we had our favoring wind on 
the day before. It was a beautiful day in the 
sense of stillness, but the sky was overcast as 
usual. It was said that as soon as Ave got north 
of the parallel of the fur-seal islands we should 
have sunshiny weather, but our experience all 
the way up through Behring Sea and Behring 
Straits into the Arctic was such as to dispel the 
idea of clear skies in the remon visited. There 
was sunshine, it is true, but in very small 
144 



OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 145 

quantities compared with the thick weather 
encountered. On July 11 we passed the lati- 
tude of the seal islands and had fog all day. 
On the 12th the sky Avas overcast all day. 
On the 13th we passed St. Lawrence Island, 
and that night lay to, owing to the bad weather. 
ISoundino's liad been taken at intervals all along 
up from Onalaska, giving only fifteen to twenty 
fathoms at forty to sixty miles from land. The 
eastern side of Behring Sea is very shoal, and 
probably has less depth now^ than w hen any of 
the surv^eys recorded upon existing charts were 
made. The Kuskoquim and Yukon, both im- 
mense rivers, continue to bring down hundreds 
of tons of mud daily, which is deposited and 
spread out along the shore and far to seaward. 
The Yukon, like the Mississip})i, has an enor- 
mous deposit at the sea, compelling the water 
to seek such outlets as it can force through 
the immense bars. Its mouths are numerous, 
])ut all shallow, preventing vessels of any con- 
siderable draft from entering or even approach- 
ing, but the river itself is as large, once in, and 
as navigable as the Father of Waters. The 
Kuskoquim is similar in character, and the 
latter is gradually filling up the sea south of 
the Yukon. Around the shore from off the 
mouth of the Yukon to St. ^lichael's there is. 



146 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

in places, not more than three fathoms of water 
fifteen miles from land. 

The weather had been against us latterly to 
a discouraging degree. Captain Bailey started 
northward with a view to investigating the 
illicit rum traffic in violation of the revenue 
laws in Behring Straits, and with iiivorable 
weather something might have been accom- 
plished. Thick fogs, however, going up and 
coming down, shut out the land at times when 
it was most desirable to cruise close to shore in 
shoal waters. AVe entered the Straits on the 
night of the fourteenth, and it was hoped we 
might have clear weather. 

About four o'clock on the morning of the 
fifteenth we passed Fairway Rock, dimly seen 
through the thick fog rising abruptly out of the 
water, looking at a short distance like a hay- 
stack. We had a better view of it after mid- 
night on the sixteenth, and at five miles distance 
it showed up naked and abrupt, rising five 
hundred feet above the water Avithout so much 
as a spoonful of soil or a leaf of vegetation visi- 
ble upon it. Fairwa}' Eock stands just south 
of the Diomede Islands, between which, only 
five miles apart, the line runs which separates 
America from Asia, the United States from 
Kussia, or, to put it still more nicely, the line 
between Alaska and Siberia. 



OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 147 

The Diomedes are two islands in Behring 
Straits almost in a line between Cape Prince of 
Wales on one side and East Cape on the other. 
From Cape Prince of Wales to the most easterly 
of the two islands is twenty miles ; from East 
Cape to the larger and most westerly of the 
Diomedes is twenty-five miles ; from outside to 
outside of both is about nine miles, makino; 
fifty-four miles across from continent to conti- 
nent, with two stepping-stones between. The 
narrowest point, however, is a trifle north of 
this, where the crossing may be made to East 
Cape, in a direct line, in forty-eight miles. 

Intercourse between the natives on either side 
has long been maintained, longer than we or 
they can tell. They have crossed from one 
continent to the other in large, open boats, and 
still do so for the exchange of commodities ; 
and doubtless for hundreds, if not thousands, 
of years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic 
there was marrying and giving in marriage 
between Asia and America. Xow, on our ex- 
treme northwestern coast the people arc called 
Eskimos. Farther to the eastward and south- 
ward their cousins are called Xorth American 
Indians. 

At the present time considerable traffic is 
made by "pirates" with our Indians, on the 



148 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

shores of Behring Straits and the Arctic, in 
bone, oil, and wah'us ivory. Neither the oil 
nor ivory are ver}" vahiable, but Avhalebone is 
worth three dollars a pound in Xew York, and 
the manner in which it is obtained from the 
Indians leaves the trader a clear profit of about 
two dollars and a half per pound. Eum is 
bought in Honolulu for seventy-five cents a gal- 
lon ; it is Avatered one-half, and a gallon of this 
diluted but villainous drink is given for a pound 
of ])one. 

The Arctic is the summer residence of the 
right and bowhead Avhales, the only kinds from 
which great quantities of bone are obtained. A 
bowhead will furnish from a thousand to two 
thousand pounds of bone, all of which comes 
out of the mouth, but which is not bone at all. 
Right whales are not quite so valuable for bone, 
but contain more oil. They yield from a hun- 
dred to a hundred and fifty barrels of oil, as a 
general thing, but as nuich as three hundred 
barrels of oil have l)een taken from a single 
whale. 

The Indians up this way go to sea in skin 
boats and strike whales when discovered, hav- 
ing seal-skin buoys at the ends of their harpoon 
lines, so that if the monster gets away they 
have a chance to follow him up. Their old bar- 



OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 149 

poons were made of glass heads, that with every 
struggle worked farther and farther into the 
flesh, and when thrown in sufficient numbers 
resulted in bleeding the animal to death. Of 
course the capture of a whale is an important 
affair to these people, as in addition to a thou- 
sand pounds of bone and a hundred barrels of 
oil they get an immense supply of meat, which 
is 1)uried for future use. Even though the whale 
should come ashore weeks after the hunt and be 
found in a putrid condition, the bone is good, 
and the flesh is not wasted. 

The traffic about Cape Prince of Wales and 
Clarence Sound between '' [)irates " and the Es- 
kimos resulted in a numl)er of murders a few 
years ago. Rum and breech-loading rifles were 
furnished to the natives in exchange for their 
commodities, and the result was not conducive 
to the welfare of the natives, profital)le to the 
revenues of the country, nor just to legitimate 
traders who have scruples against infraction of 
the laws of the land {uid of morals. The In- 
dians along the straits get some land furs also, 
Avhich form a considerable item in this trade, 
although the skins are by no means so valuable 
as those obtained farther south in Alaska. 

The rum dealt out to the Indians is not only 
l)ad in that it is of the cheapest quality of 



150 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

sorghum fermentation, but it is vile in re- 
spect that it is smuggled in from the Sandwich 
Islands, Avhile honest Pennsylvania and Ken- 
tucky whiskey pays a tax of ninety cents a 
gallon. 

A remedy could and should be found for this 
state of affairs, and it might be applied with 
profit to the public purse. 

What is needed is a United States steam 
vessel of about five hundred tons, that would 
be able to carry enough coal from San Francisco 
or Nanaimo for a six months' cruise. She should 
be constructed with a view to s^oins: into the 
ice without having her stern-post and rudder 
carried away. She should l)e ready to enter 
the straits as soon as the ice opened, in iNIay 
or June, and cruise along the coast as high up 
as Kotzebue Sound, or even to Icy Cape, and 
down to Port Clarence, then work along the 
coast southward to San Francisco for winter 
quarters. A vessel of that class so managed 
would doubtless break \\\) the piratical opera- 
tions Avhich have been carried on in these 
waters. 

The " Rush " made an unsuccessful run to 
the Arctic because she was too late, not being 
rigged for going into the ice with safety, and 
because her short supplj' of coal would not 



OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 151 

admit of her remaining so far north in bad 
weather. Had the weather been clear she might 
have run across a contra])and trader, even at 
that hite day in the season, although those ves- 
sels were supposed to be generally to the north 
and east of Cape Prince of Wales, especially 
such as are rigged for whaling as well as trading. 
Neither in the straits nor in the Arctic did we 
see a sail of any size or shape, — not even a 
canoe ; and it was only at short intervals that Ave 
could see the land. 

At 7.30 o'clock on the morning of the 
fifteenth of July, — then, according to dead 
reckoning, under the lee of the Diomedes, with 
Cape Prince of Wales on the starboard beam, cal- 
culating from Fairway Rock, the last land seen, 
— the ''Rush" was hove to for clear weather. 
Dredging was commenced again m the cause of 
science, and it at once l^ecame apparent that we 
were drifting rapidly to the northward. This 
continued with thick fog till live o'clock in the 
evening, when the veil lifted and we picked 
ourselves up, according to observation, twenty- 
six miles to the northward of the Diomedes and 
forty miles northeastwardly from East Cape to 
Siberia. We had drifted with the current at 
least twenty miles during the day and were well 
into the Arctic Ocean. 



152 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

As far as could be seen to the northward the 
sky was clear and the Asiatic coast, which trends 
off to the northwestward, was visil)le for fifty or 
sixty miles, but the American side was still en- 
velbped in a thick fog. Al)out six o'clock tliis 
lifted so as to show the top of a mountain on 
Cape Prince of AVales for a few minutes, but 
this soon disappeared again. Presently, how- 
ever, the gray mists began to move off to the 
northeast, and then the rugged line of peaks on 
the extreme nortliAvestwardly point of our pos- 
sessions stood out picturesquely, the low land 
along the coast northeastward of the cape ])eing 
still, and to the last, concealed from view. 

Then we had before us a no])le picture of the 
bold headland of Siberia on the starboard beam. 
Cape Prince of Wales on the port, and, l}'ing 
almost equidistant between them, the Diomedes 
at the head of the straits. We were in the 
Arctic, with a pleasant l)ut cool evening ; the 
thermometer indicating 32^ al)ove all day. It 
promised to be a clear night, and with this hope 
w^e got under way, headed southward for the 
straits again, intending to lay in under the south- 
ern shore of Cape Prince of Wales to ascertain 
the condition of affairs thereabouts. 

A strong current was setting up from Beh- 
ring Sea created in part by the southeast Avinds 



OUH ARCTIC RELATIONS. 15o 

which we had experienced on ouu way north, 
and we made slow progress against it. Still 
we had plenty of time to reach the Cape be- 
fore morning, if '' morning " can be understood 
where there is no night, and there was no ap- 
parent cause for anxiety. Once more we began 
to hope for an all-da}' sun, but again, by half 
past ten, the northern sky was obscured by a 
bank of clouds which had come up out of the 
southwest. The sun disappeared behind the 
clouds but darkness did not come. At 11 p.m. 
the sky in the southeast was aglow wdth reflec- 
tions from behind the clouds in the opposite 
point, over which the purple and crimson 
fringed clouds held out a signal that the sun 
w^as still above the horizon. As these hues 
faded out, a delicate straw tint appeared a1)ove 
the low clouds in the north, and this soon 
deepened to a saffron which by midnight be- 
came a rich salmon color, and dawn was an- 
nounced as at hand in all her glory. Although 
during the night and at twelve o'clock the 
northern sky Avas obscured by clouds, about 
nine degrees above the horizon there Avas a 
broad rent upon which the changes going on 
below were recorded, that we might see and 
know. There was an abundance of clear sky 
overhead, the blue of day so light that not a 



154 A TFdP TO ALASKA. 

star could make itself visible at any time. It 
was clear day all night, brighter at twelve 
than at eleven, if possible, and brighter at one 
in the niornino' than at twelve, and bris^hter 
then also than at breakfast time, when the 
clouds and fog prevailed. 

The fog had formed in fanciful shapes, owing 
to the uneven surface of the land from which it 
had been lifted, and through this the light of 
the morning sun, toned by the strong colors of 
the north, were cast in a wonderfully striking 
manner. The pale sea green, like the sun 
shining through the crest of a Avave, appeared 
in the north, again l)ordered by purple of richest 
dye, while crimson and molten gold appeared 
lower down. The "brassy" character of the 
sunset two nights before was here absent, the 
effects now lacing of the richest character possi- 
ble to conceive. 

Turning out at seven o'clock in the morning 
and going upon deck, it was ascertained that at 
3.30 A. M. the fog had shut out the land, and 
the " Rush " Avas ol)liged to haul oft*, owing to 
the presence of shoals and reefs wdiich could 
only be avoided in clear weather, as charts can- 
not be relied on for information concerning 
them. Then we stood down the straits again 
with the intention of })utting in to Port Clar- 



OUR ARCTIC RELATIONS. 155 

ence, a resort of northern cruisers ; l3ut this 
could not be made with safety, owing to the 
thick weather; and there was nothing to l)e 
done Init continue southward against wind and 
tide. A two-knot current sets up through the 
straits and that is what makes this the most de- 
sirable route for entering the Arctic. It is 
well kn()^vn to Avhalers that they can get into 
the pohu- sea through Behring Straits much 
earlier than from the head of the Atlantic. 

Coming southward the temperature of the 
sea water ran up ten degrees in one day ; enter- 
ing Norton Sound, it went up six degrees in an 
hour. Soundings yesterday showed shallow 
water all the way down on our side of Behring 
Straits, ten miles oft' Port Clarence giving only 
seven and a half fathoms, which was also about 
the depth for hours in Norton Sound till it 
shoaled to three and a half. The water here is 
shallow, warmed and discolored by the sand 
from the Yukon River. The saline matter is 
twenty per cent less than that in the Arctic. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ST. Michael's and the yukon. 

O T. MICHAEL'S, or Michaelovsky Eedoubt, 
'^ as it was formerly called, stands upon an 
island in the southeast bend of Norton's Sound, 
beino- situated in latitude 63° 29' 54" north, and 
162° 8' west longitude. This was established 
as a landing-place and headquarters of the 
Russian-American Company for the Yukon 
River trade. 

In olden times — that is to say, under Russian 
rule — all goods intended for the Yukon trade 
were landed here, and generall)^ taken around 
to the river in skin boats, or bidarras, but at 
present small stern-wheel steamboats are em- 
ployed for that purpose. These boats do not 
go out to sea from St. Michael's, but pass 
through a sort of slough or canal, to the river, 
which they reach in about fifty miles. They 
carry merchandise up to the various trading 
l)osts in the summer, and in the following 
s})ring bring down the furs which are received 
during the winter months. 
156 



ST. MICHAEVS AND THE YUKON. 157 

The Alaska Commercial Company occupies 
the old redoubt, a picturesque collection of log 
])uildings on one side of the bay, Avhile three 
miles across were a number of new buildinsfs, 
headquarters of the Western Fur and Trading 
Company. On the same side with the redoubt, 
about half a mile away, is the Mahlemute vil- 
lage, consisting of thirty or forty log huts and 
a " kashima," or club-house, where the Indians 
congregate to dance and sweat in cold weather. 
When the "Rush" arrived, a number of 
Yukon Indians were gathered about the AVestern 
Fur and Trading Company's l)uildings, having 
come down with the traders to get supplies for 
the ensuing season. They were in a despond- 
ent condition at that time, owing to the non- 
arrival of the vessel which was to brino- the 
goods and the little steamer. But when we 
reported the arrival of their schooner at Ona- 
laska, with the assurance that she nn'o-ht be 
expected at the termination of her voyage 
within a few days, there were great rejoicings, 
and the Indians danced and sang all night. 

In this country, where, at this season of the 
year, there is daylight all night, there is a splen- 
did chance for making a long dance, and wdiere 
beef is unknown and waterfowl are super- 
abundant, an egg festival in season takes a form 



158 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

of barbaric gorgeousness that makes a powerful 
impression on one during his first visit. Here 
where the natives w^ear fur parkies, or over- 
shirts with hood attached, and deerskin boots 
of fancy manufacture and varied hue, and where 
bhibber is considered ahnost indispensable, 
there is much for the visitor from civilization to 
see and consider. 

Eggs here in season are estimated by the 
bushel. Bushels of them are cooked for a meal 
where there may be a dozen of guests, and 
hard-boiled goose eggs are eaten with impunity 
in such enormous quantities as in civilized com- 
munities would be considered certain death. 

The Yukon salmon are pronounced the finest 
on the Pacific Coast. Generally speakino:, sal- 
mon is dry and tasteless. The Columbia River 
furnishes an almost inexhaustible quantity, but 
a ])etter quality is taken further north. Sitka 
is also famous for salmon, but Cook's Inlet and 
Bristol Bay have those that are l)etter. Yet 
persons Avho have tried all say that they are 
best at the mouth of the Yukon and in adjacent 
waters. They range in weight from forty to one 
hundred and twenty pounds, and are very fat and 
well flavored. When drying in the sun the oil 
drips out of them, and once dried they may be 
set on fire and they will burn like pine knots. 



ST. MICHAEL'S AND THE YUKON. 159 

Taken raw out of the brine up here, they are 
eaten with great relish by the civilized, as ^vell 
as the savage, inhabitants. But accepting such 
a diet may be only another proof of the readi- 
ness with which man adapts himself to his sur- 
roundings. There is no beef here, and for some 
years past there has been little or no reindeer. 
At the present time moose is out of the ques- 
tion, and rabbits are as scarce as spring chicken. 
Vegetables are the rarest of luxuries, and ber- 
ries out of season. Therefore, if one can set 
him down to a feast of hard-boiled goose eggs 
or raw salmon from the brine, after having 
been surfeited on salt pork and corned beef on 
shipboard, the change of diet is delightful, and 
the feast is pronounced a success. 

There are no gardens at St. Michael's. What 
could you expect in such a country, although, 
just now, it is delightful? Last week we had 
the thermometer down to thirty-two Fahrenheit, 
and forty was considered "away up." 

Here, in Norton's Sound, the ice did not 
break up till the 7th of June. On the 10th it 
moved out of the bay, but the weather Avas cold, 
wet", and stormy till late in July. In the win- 
ter the thermometer goes down thirty to fifty 
degrees below zero, and it is winter here eight 
months in the year. The hot days are the 



160 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

exception, even in summer, although berries 
grow plentifull\% and even ripen well, back in 
the mountains. AVe had mosquitoes, too, on 
the first day of our stay ; fine, large, earnest 
mosquitoes, and barn swallows are plentiful 
about the redoubt. Yet in spite of all these 
signs of summer, agriculture will never form an 
important feature of this part of Alaska. 

It would be a peculiar countrj^ which would 
produce walruses and polar bears, watermelons 
and tomatoes. Walruses go away south of this 
into Bristol Bay, while St. Matthew's Island, 
one of our possessions to the southwest of this, 
is inha1)ited by polar bears exclusively, neither 
Chinamen, whites, nor negroes having any recog- 
nized rights there. As a purely agricultural 
proposition I do not hesitate to put it down 
that pohir bears are Avorse than coons for green 
corn, and walruses are more discouraging than 
your neighbor's chickens to a tomato patch. 
As long as polar bears and walruses are per- 
mitted to run at large in this Territory, the corn 
and tomato crop cannot prosper. Some people 
may laugh at the meditative walrus, and ask 
how, with those long tusks, he can eat without 
standing on his head, but I have observed that 
where walruses abound ripe tomatoes are scarce, 
except in cans, and if those amphibious animals 



ST. MICHAEL'S AND THE YUKON. 161 

and polar bears are not kept yoked or muzzled 
there is no use look i no- for a laro-e corn and 
tomato crop from Alaska. St. Michaels, or to 
put it more definitely, Michaelovsk}', is seldom 
or never represented by mammoth vegetables 
at agricultural fairs. AVhere the ice crop can- 
not be got out of the way before the middle of 
June, where the tops of the hills are morasses 
all summer, and where the inhabitants will risk 
being drowned for the sake of blul)ber, when 
the oil-skin at home is in a collapsed condition, 
it is useless to expect gigantic pumpkins and 
seven-foot cucumbers. In this respect St. Mich- 
ael's greatly resembles other parts of xllaska. 

There may be causes why certain people 
should come to Alaska and settle, as there have 
been arguments for making penal colonies in 
the Aleutian Archipelago. But the reason for 
the one must l)e that the innnigrants were per- 
sonal enemies of those who advised their remov- 
al, and for the other that starvation should be 
the lot of all criminals. 

But in truth, from the southeast to the south- 
west extremity of Alaska, the "Eush," which 
has been cruising around the coast and is.ands 
of this Territory from early ^lay to late July, 
has not visited a spot to which it would be 
advisal^le for any person to come from any part 



162 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

of the States where he may have a home and 
be able to earn a livelihood. Xor have I seen 
a man in any })()s^ition in Alaska ^vho would 
advise a friend to come out here as a settler, 
either in trade or agriculture. 

We are here in the home of the Innuit or 
Eskimo. All the way along the coast, from the 
Kuskoquim across the Yukon, around Norton 
Sound, out to Cape Prince of Wales, and thence 
northeastwardly to Point Barrow and beyond, 
these Eskimos are called Innuits. They are 
similar in form and feature, they dress simi- 
larly, they eat the same sort of food, they have 
similar modes of conveyance, similar weapons 
and implements, have the same traditions and 
speak the same language, with slight local 
variations. 

It has l:)een acknowledged, or it is asserted, 
that the roots of the language or tongue spoken 
by these people and the Eskimos of Greenland 
are identical, the covered skin boat used by 
both being called "kyack," while the open boat 
is denominated '^oomiak" here and there alike. 
But this might be accounted for hy the fact that 
both tribes have always lived and hunted seals, 
whales, and walruses along tlie coast, and al- 
though the northeast or northwest passage is 
impracticable for ships, communication between 



ST. MICHAEL'S AND THE YUKOX. 163 

these people must have been frequent, and 
often, doubtless, involuntary. In any event, 
it may be assumed as not at all improbable that 
the Greenlanders were carried over from this 
continent on the ice, as these men are now 
occasionall}^ carried out to sea, and sometimes 
heard of no more, and as their ancestors were 
probably carried from Asia. 

Such a case as this was reported here, when 
an Indian trader, brimyino- down a lot of seal- 
skins from Unalakleet, represented that one of 
his men was carried away this spring on the 
ice, and the chief Avas inquiring if our vessel 
had found him. It is also known that Captain 
Tyson and his men were carried two thousand 
miles on ice from the "Polaris" a few years ago. 
After the "Rush" hove to under the lee of 
Diomedes on the fifteenth, she drifted into the 
Arctic at the rate of two knots an hour ; so the 
fact that the Alaskan Innuits and the Greenland 
Eskimos use similar words in similar positions 
is not remarkable. It is astonishing, however, 
that Indians on the Mackenzie River, in British 
America, speak the same tongue as those low 
down on the Yukon, with tifteen or twenty 
tribes or bands between them which have an 
altogether different tongue, and which com- 
pletely prevent anything like communication 



164 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Ijetween those having the words and idioms ; yet 
such is said to be the fact. 

These Innuits or Eskimos of Ahiska live by 
hunting hair seals, whales, and walruses, Avhich 
furnish them food and oil for tlieir own use and 
with conmiodities for trade to interior Indians 
for furs, of which they make dresses and bed- 
covering. 

The seal supplies them with a hide which, 
when tanned, is used to cover l)oat-frames, 
forming the kyack somewhat similar to the 
bidarkie of the Aleutians and Kadiakers. Tliese 
hides, called "lovtak," are in great demand by 
the Indians up the Yukon for boats, and those 
same interior men have a desire for oil which 
makes an interchange of commodities between 
the coast and inland natives highly advanta- 
geous to l)oth and of })r()lit to the white traders, 
who have come in as middlemen and as pur- 
chasers of the surplus oil and furs. 

The walrus is hunted for its ivory, which is 
used in the manufacture of arrow and spear 
heads, and also many other articles of value 
and adornment. Any animal, from a whale to 
wild duck, may be taken by ivory-headed 
spears, which are more plentiful among these 
Indians than either firearms or iron-headed 
weapons. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

KILLING THE WHITE WHALE. 

DURING our stay at St. Michael's, we Avere 
so fortunate as to witness the killing of a 
white whale, or grampus, by the Indians. An 
Indian who acts as trader at Unalakleet for the 
Alaska Commercial Company came sailing up 
the sound one day in a large bidarra. He car- 
ried a foretopsail, and came floating in as quietly 
and gracefully as Elaine's barge, with the dumb 
boatman, floated with the tide to King Arthur's 
castle. The bidarra sailed up to the beach, 
the mast was sent down, and the contents of the 
boat began to And their way ashore. Twenty- 
three men, women, and children and two dogs 
were tirst landed. Then tents, camp equipage, 
and salmon, fresh and dried, for the party. 
After that the men commenced carrying off 
shoulder loads of dressed sealskins, neatly put 
up, five in a bundle, till forty-eight large and 
forty-one of the smaller size were landed. Five 
bundles of sealskin thongs, lashings for boat- 

165 



16(3 .1 TRIP TO ALASKA. 



buildino* — oo nails beinj? used — were carried 
off next, followed by two sealskins of oil, and 
l)undles containing five hundred marmot skins 
for fur robes. All this came out of an open 
skin boat twenty-live feet long by eight feet 
beam, — flat bottom, of course. As the bidarra 
came in, the natives noticed a school of white 
whales in the bay. They had been running in 
great numbers all day without being disturbed. 
After the freight had been landed, however, one 
of the men who came down from Unalakleet 
jumped into a kyack and paddled out. He 
did not go a mile Ijefore he came up with his 
game, and as one of the largest sized arose to 
blow, the Indian threw his harpoon, which took 
a solid hold. At the moment when the whale 
shot down, the shaft of the harpoon slipped 
away from the head, \vhich Avas connected by a 
line with an inflated sealskin, acting as a buoy. 
The harpoon was not to kill, but to connect the 
fish with the buoy. As soon as the lazy Indians 
loafing on shore and on board the steamer 
saw that the '' beluga," as it is called, was 
struck, they put out, to the number of a dozen, 
to assist in the capture and share in the sport 
and spoils. 

As they gathered around they formed a novel 
and an excitino^ scene. It was a hunt of a 



KILLING THE WHITE WHALE. 1()7 

dozen men in small sealskin boats after a mon- 
ster with power enough to Avreck them all with 
one blow if it could strike them all together. 
The floating sealskin indicated the movements of 
the beluga below, and the little fleet, formed in 
a semicircle, went paddling for the prey. A 
beluga cannot remain below very long, and, 
whenever this one came up to blow, a kyack 
was alongside, and an ivory spear or half a 
dozen spears would ])e darted in through the 
alabaster skin to the blubber. As the number 
of spears increased, the beluga became quicker 
in its motions and more changeful in course, 
but no matter what the direction taken, or when 
or where the tortured animal arose, the inevita- 
l)le kyack was there, and more ivory spears 
were thrown. Lashing the waters and tumbling 
about, rolling from side to side in terror, but 
yet not struck in a vital point, the beluga hur- 
ried hither and thither, but there was no escape 
from the remorseless pursuers. Hither and 
thither, to the right and to the left, ])ut always 
advancing in line or circular form, light on the 
surface of the water as sea-birds, and swift as 
the fish beneath, flew the buoyant kyacks, im- 
pelled and guided l)y the single-bladed paddle. 
Each navigator of each bublile of a boat was 
always ready with another spear until the be- 



168 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

luga, as it rolled up, looked like a porpoise of 
huo'e dimensions bristling with enormous quills. 

For two hours the chase continued, extend- 
ing over a line of at least three miles, the beluga 
being gradually worried and tired out. Finally 
it moved more slowl}^ and sluggishly, but as 
yet spouted no blood, nor did it appear much 
weakened. It was exhausted and half suffo- 
cated for want of air, but, if then released, 
might live for many years. 

Then, as it came quite exhausted to the sur- 
face, and slowh^ turned upon its side, the hunter 
who had fastened the harpoon into it was at 
hand and, taking a long lance, thrust it into the 
body just back of the right tin and, churning it 
up and down two or three times with lightning- 
like rapidity, shot away to avoid trouble. The 
beluga was now^ mortally hurt, and as he lashed 
the water into foam and si)()uted l)lood for a few 
moments in death agony, the Indians knew that 
the chase was over. They fell back and looked 
on with a quiet air of satisfaction after their ex- 
citing hunt, as if they had done nothing out of 
the ordinary course of events with them. The 
next matter was to tow their prize ashore, which 
was done l)y buoying it up between four kyacks, 
the owners of which paddled with it to the In- 
dian camp. Here some forms and ceremonies 



KILLING THE WHITE WHALE. 169 

were necessary before hauling it out of the 
water and cutting it up. It will not do to cut 
up a beluga with an axe, and, if there are seals 
around, it would be flying in the face of fortune 
to chop wood. On such occasions the fire- wood 
must be cut with a knife. One hunter will not 
permit his wife to taste of moose meat of his 
own killing when it is fresh, Init after three 
days she may have some of it. In some cases, 
for weeks after a woman has become a mother, 
she will not be permitted to eat flesh of any 
kind, or her husband would have no luck in 
hunting. 

In the case of landins: the beluo-a, the tedious 
ceremonies performed by the successful hunter 
concluded with trinnning a small strip from 
the edge of each fin, from the tail, and from 
the upper lip, before the game was hauled 
out from the water. After he had performed 
his ceremonies he walked away, leaving those 
who chose to cut oflT what they wanted. During 
the night there was a great feast in camp, the 
kettles being kept boiling till morning, and as 
some thirty or forty Indians were working away 
at it, the beluga was not much more than a 
skeleton in twenty-four hours. 



CHAPTER XVII, 



SUPERSTITIONS. 



rpHESE Indians believe in the "Shaman," or 
-*- Medicine Man. The Shaman is not born 
to his i)i"otession here, as amono- the h)wer Alask- 
ans. He is the creature of accident or of revela- 
tion. He has a dream sometime, which, being 
verified, he goes off'alone into some remote place, 
Avhere he fasts for several days, after which he 
comes out and announces himself a Shaman. 
Now he is read}^ to heal the sick, to regulate the 
weather, and to supply game in seasons when it 
is scarce. His manner of curing diseases is b\^ 
incantations, no vile drugs being administered. 
The cure, if effected, is due to his miraculous 
influence Avilh invisible spirits. If he fail, and 
the • patient dies, he persuades the mourning 
relatives into the belief that some other Shaman 
or some old woman bewitched the deceased, 
and then death is the lot of the offending party 
who comes in between the doctor and the dead. 
Some of these Shamans believe in themselves, 
170 



SUPERSTITIONS. 171 

but as a rule they know that they are humbugs. 
There was one at the ''Mission" on the Yukon, 
who, during a scarcity of deer, proposed to go 
up to the moon and get a supply. It should be 
known that, according to Innuit accounts, all 
game comes out of the moon, the origin of 
which orb and others is thus accounted for : — 

In the beginning there was plenty of land, 
water, and sky, but no planetary system. An 
Indian, who noticed that the sky came down to 
the ground in a certain locality, went forward 
and made holes in it with his paddle. One 
stroke formed a rent through which the sun 
shines, another tore away the curtain from be- 
fore the moon, and smaller stabs with the oar 
made places through Avhich the stars are now 
visible. The moon being merely a hole through 
Avhich the light shines from a land Avhere the 
supply of game is inexhaustible, all a Shaman 
has to do for his tribe is to go up and throAv a 
sufficient number of moose or deer down through 
the hole. There is no doubt in the minds of 
some that he can do this. 

The Shaman at the ^Mission who volunteer(Ml 
to go up to the moon after game went on a 
strong pull. He fastened a rope around his 
body, beneath his arms, and about his neck. 
Then he went down under the floor of the 



172 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

"kashimti," or club-house, Avhere they have 
then- dances and festivities. He left one end 
of the line in the hands of some Indians above, 
with instructions for them to pull as soon as he 
got out of sight. The\' obeyed, and pulled 
vigorously until the}' l)ecame tired. They 
waited and rested brietiy, but, hearing nothing, 
they pulled for another quarter of an hour. 
They rested again, and after that took another 
pull, and kept this up till the exercise became 
too monotonous even for an Eskimo. Then 
the}' Avent down and found the Shaman dead. 
They supposed this was a regular part of the 
programme of going to the moon, and perhaps 
in this they were not far from l)eing correct. 
But they believed the Shaman would come back 
after throwing doAvn enough game from the 
moon, and the}' saved him for eight days in a 
sitting posture. At the end of that time, as the 
spirit failed to come back, they laid the body 
away to be called for. 

Reindeer were formcrl}' plentiful hereabouts ; 
a few years ago they disa})peared, and the next 
winter they were seen in unusual numbers, not 
in the moon, but down about Belkoosky, on the 
peninsula of Alaska. They may come back, 
but the spirit of the Shaman will probaldy re- 
main in the moon. 



SVPERSTITIOKS. 173 

In order to have influence among the people, 
it is necessaiy that the Shamans should be pos- 
sessed of mysterious powers. They perform 
many feats that would do credit to " material- 
izing mediums." There was one who would 
permit his hands to be bound together Avith 
leather thongs behind his back, and would pull 
the lashings through his body and show the 
wrists still fastened in front. But it was indis- 
pensable that this miracle should be performed 
beneath his parka, or skin robe. Of course, 
he could not draw his bound hands through the 
parka. On one occasion, the parka being raised 
unexpectedly to the Shaman, it was found that 
one of his hands was already half out of the 
bindings, and it appeared that his wrist was 
disproportionately large, so that he could re- 
lease and again insert the hand in the lashings. 
Such a development generally only proves the 
presence of unfavoral)le spirits. 

Another element of influence is for the Sha- 
man to be able to repeat some words, or jargon, 
which the common Indians cannot comprehend. 
The words may have no meaning or significance, 
l)ut they have a great influence among the unin- 
itiated. A Shaman who oroes aboard of a vessel 
and picks up some of the phrases of the sailors 
(such as are called " vigorous Saxon " when 



174 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

used by great men, Ijut are put down and re- 
buked as " horrid oaths " in the mouth of the 
common herd) supplies himself with a sort of 
ammunition that can be used to great advantage 
in incantations for game, or to drive out devils. 
Some of these fakirs eat fire, also, which is a 
valuable accomplishment; and one Shaman, at 
Pastolic, between St. Michael's and the mouth 
of the Yukon, permitted himself to l)e l)urned 
alive to satisfy the people that he was not a 
swindler. He had an immense p.yre of logs 
arranged near the hut in Avhich all of the people 
were assembled, and, at a given signal, he took 
a position in the centre, and the torch was ap- 
plied. He stood tbei'e calm as a to])acco sign, 
with a Avooden mask upon his face, and gazed 
upon the people as the}" retired into the hut to 
" make medicine " for him. 

In half an hour they came out, and saw 
nothing but the mask in the centre, all the 
logs around it being on fire. The next time 
they went out all was burned down to cinders, 
and they again returned to the hut. Presently 
a slight noise was heard ui)on the roof, lolloAved 
immediately by the descent of the Shaman, mask 
and all. The eftcct was wonderful, as it was in- 
tended to be, but it cost the Shaman about 
twenty-five dollars worth of skins to his two 



SUPERSTITIONS. 175 

accomplices who arranged the hole through 
which he crawled out under the logs of the 
pyre, and who worked the people into the hut 
and out again at the proper time. One of the 
confederates, who afterwards worked for a white 
man, confessed the material part he had taken in 
the mystery. The mask seen in tlie fire was not 
upon the Shaman's face, but fastened to a pole. 

The origin of man and other animals, accord- 
ing to the account of the up-country Indians, is 
not without its mystery also. Man and all 
other animals were created by the eagle and 
the blue-jay, jointly. After man was nearly 
finished, the jay proposed to give him wings, 
but to this the eagle objected, saying that he 
had already been made too powerftd, and to 
permit him to fly would be to make him alto- 
gether dangerous. Some controversy occurred 
on this, l)ut the eagle would not give way, and 
consequently the jay would have nothing fur- 
ther to do in the matter, and withdrew from 
the co-partnership. 

That dispute explains why the eagle keeps as 
far from man as possible, while the jay goes 
into his camp with impunity, and takes what- 
ever he wants, if he can find it. The jay 
knows he did all he could for man, and as the 
man knows it, too, the bird is not molested. 



176 A. TRIP TO ALASKA. 

When the Indian dies he goes to that land 
which the wild geese seek in the winter. It is 
a long way off, and the entrance to it is a narrow 
pass which may be travelled only when the snow 
is melted. Some Indians — the bad ones — have 
greater trouble than others in making the jour- 
ney, being ol)Iiged to go through a long, dark 
passage, probably through the Hoosac tunnel. 
They are not yet determined on the exact na- 
ture of that portion of the journey. It is an 
article of faith which they say they believe in, 
but do not consider it necessary to comprehend. 

Their views and doubts on this question are 
almost enough to lead one to suspect them of 
having a religion, but they haven't. They all 
believe, however, that, once in the promised 
hmd they will find clear skies, warm weather, 
and an inexhaustible supply of game. It is 
the "happy hunting ground" over again, with 
variations having their origin in the climate in 
which the Indian passes his earthly existence. 

Living here in an Arctic region, with a brief 
but delightful summer of three months, mostly 
composed of daylight, the Indian creates such 
a heaven as he fancies he would most enjoy. 
Summer and ofame are the chief elements of 
heavenly happiness. Other Indians will incor- 
porate some common want, as a dog and a 



S UPERS TITIONS. Ill 

pony, and create a heaven accordingly. Start- 
ing on common ground, the Indian idea of a 
future life has changed as the Indian changed, 
generation after generation, from one locality to 
another. These Indians don't know what a 
horse is. The plain Indians cannot fancy hap- 
piness without horses, and these ideas influence 
their view of futurity. 

The "Great Spirit," and even the "Great 
Father" in Washinoton are beings of whom 
nothing is asked among the Eskimos. Give 
them plenty of blubber to-day, and they do 
not concern themselves about to morrow or the 
future. They like plenty of grease, and for 
that reason would rather encounter a whale than 
a missionary. They need boats, and would 
rather capture a hair seal, the skin of which is 
an important article in their naval architecture, 
than to receive a trunkful of tracts. They 
think more of a dog-team than of a free-school 
live stories high, with double-acting seats and 
desks. They are a lazy, dirty set, and when 
the Catholic bishop was up here among them, 
offering to baptize their children, they said he 
might if he would pay them for it. When peo- 
ple get religion in that way it does n't take a 
very strong hold on them, under a generation or 
two. 



CHAPTER XVni. 

DOGS AND DRIVERS. 

rjlHE old schooll)oy notion of the North 
-*- American Indian as a creature that could 
run day and night through the pathless woods, 
from the Alleghany TSlountains to the Black 
Hills, livmg on panthers and catamounts as he 
raced along, going for weeks without sleep or 
rest of any kind, does not fit these Innuits or 
Eskimos. These fellows seldom walk, they 
take their exercise mainly in boats during 
the summer, and compel the squaws to dry 
enough salmon and collect a sufficient quantity 
of driftwood to last during the winter. When 
compelled, however, they can do some good 
travelling with dog-teams and sledges in the 
winter. St. Michael's is one of the most noted 
places for dog teams. 

When we landed at St. jNIichael's we were 
warmly Avelcomed hy al)out fifty dogs, thirty- 
two of which had been provided for by the 
" Jeannette" and eight more were expected for 
178 



DOGS AND DRIVERS. 179 

the same expedition. These INfahlemute or Es- 
kimos dogs are good-natured fellows, always 
glad to see a white man, no matter how great a 
stranger he may be. They stand around the 
landing-place on the beach waving their bushy 
tails and lolling out their tongues on warm days 
in the most friendly manner possible. They 
do not wag their tails like frivolous society do^^s 
in civilization, but gently and gracefully sway 
them to and fro like willow branches Avavino- in 
a summer breeze. Having greeted the stranger 
as a friend, and by every look and action in- 
vited him to make his home among them, they 
lay the welcoming tail upon the left hip, and 
walk up the hill with him in a grave and dio:ni- 
fied manner, as to say, '' Now that you are one 
of us, no form nor ceremony, you know. If 
you see anything you want, ta\ve it." 

To a person nervous on the dog question, to 
one always expecting to be clutched at the 
throat by a mastiff, or be nipped on the heel by 
a cur, to one who believes in hydrophobia in 
its most terrible form, it cannot be other than a 
genuine pleasure to meet a party of Eskimo 
dogs, which seem to entertain a sincere friend- 
ship and respect for the Avhite man. Indeed, 
it is quite flattering Avhen compared with their 
indifference for the Indian. I say nothing about 



180 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the domestic " tiffs " among these dogs, because 
those are aifairs that never ought to be heard of 
outside the family circle, but it is well known 
that their ears, Avhen in a normal condition, 
always stick sharply up, while after being 
" chawed " they hang down in a way that gives 
the animal to which they belong a blase, not to 
say a debauched appearance — and a good many 
ears are in a morbidly despondent condition. 

When the sun shines and the thermometer 
gets up to sixty, as Ave had it at St. Michael's, 
these dogs lie in the shade and pant. AVhen 
there is a summer shower they stroll about and 
smile. They have heavy coats for the cold 
winters, and as yet their masters have not gone 
so far as to consult their comfort by shearing 
them in the spring like sheep. So they must 
sweat and pant in dog-days. 

Two teams hitched up to sledges here afforded 
us an exhibition of how such affairs are man- 
aged, and in both instances, as soon as the har- 
ness was brought out and laid ujion the ground, 
every old dog about the place was wild with 
excitement and eager to get into collar and 
traces. We went up on the "tundra," or wet 
prairie, back of the redoubt, and with five dogs 
hitched tandem, had a ride upon the sled, which 
was hustled along over the grassy hummocks at 



DOGS AND DRIVERS. 181 

a fifood trot, a man ranninir ahead as a ofuide, 
and another holding the handles behind, as with 
a plow, to steady and keep the sled from going 
over. These tandem teams were of ''American 
mastiff" breed, the Eskimo dogs l)eing always, 
till very lately, worked double, one on each 
side of a line from the sled to a single leader in 
front. They have their advantages and disad- 
vantages. The American dogs are more power- 
ful than those of Eskimo breeding:, and workins^ 
them in single file requires less trail-breaking in 
a deep, light snow. But they cannot stand 
severe cold equal to the Elskimo dogs, which 
have the shaggy coats, and have been acclimated 
through generations of predecessors. 

The Eskimo dogs are generally of a light 
brown, frequently mottled with a darker shade 
of the same color. A few show some Avhite. 
They are about twice as large, on an average, 
as the Spitz dog, which is common in the States. 
While patient and tractable with man, they have 
their oAvn troubles and frequently make night 
hideous with their bowlings. 

There has been much romancins: and exasfa'e- 
ration al)out the capacities of Eskimo dog teams, 
but from the best accounts it is not prudent to 
start out on a trip of any considerable distance 
with more than two hundred pounds to a team 



182 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

of seven dogs. The traders generally travel 
with a number of teams together, that the men 
may be of assistance to each other. The cargo 
is lashed firmly into the sled, so that, in case 
of a capsize, it can be righted again without re- 
packing. Under very favorable circumstances, 
on good roads (smooth ice or well-packed, level 
snow), long distances are made. Ninety miles 
in one day of fifteen hours have been traversed 
with a team of nine dogs. Such drives are, 
however, of rare occurrence. During the sum- 
mer the dogs receive but little attention, being 
left to forage for their food generally, getting a 
few scraps or a little fish soup occasionally. 
But in the winter they are valuable property, 
and are often swapped or sold at fancy prices. 
When a trader is starting out alone from the 
base of supplies with his team, all the other 
traders make a point of being up and about at 
an early hour on that morning, to see that no 
mistakes are made about the dogs harnessed, as 
an eye is always kept to the main chance of 
gaining a good dog by accident. 

The P^skimosare generally a quiet, inoftensive 
people. From the Kuskoquim northward to 
the rum region the Indians have a flattering fear 
of the white man. They, and all other Indians 
in Alaska having communications with traders 



DOGS AND DRIVERS. 183 

before Seward's purchase, were kept in close 
subjection by the Russians, who made them feel 
their power, so that even to this day a white 
man may go into a "kashima" alone and un- 
armed, and beat whomsoever he pleases without 
much risk of meeting with resistance or retalia- 
tion ; and this among a people who believe m 
avenging the death of a relative by blood. Of 
the white man they have a dread, because they 
believe he represents a power that could crush 
them out of existence, and would be quick to 
do it if provocation were given. That is among 
the more southern Innuits or Eskimos, and 
above, among the Yukon and Tennanai Indians, 
where white men go to trade. It is well for 
the whites that the Indians so regard them, or 
they would not dare to stay in the country an 
hour. 

Among the coast natives of Cape Prince of 
Wales and Kotzbue Sound, there is a different 
condition of afiairs. White men would hardly 
be safe to go among them alone as they do up 
the Yukon. The mode of traffic up the coast 
way is for the Indians to come off in their boats 
to the vessels that frequent these waters, and do 
their trading on board. Even this is now con- 
sidered somewhat dangerous for vessels with a 
small equipment. 



184 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

It was at Cape Prince of Wales that the In- 
dian massacre occurred in 1877, and as there 
have been fights and feuds at other points to 
the northward, in consequence of the presence 
of rum among them, it is not a good place for 
a white man to go alone. How long the more 
southern Eskimos will maintain their present 
submissive character cannot be foretold, but the 
presence of an armed ship in these waters every 
year Avould go a long way toward keeping these 
peaceable, and toward preventing the further 
demoralization of those to the northward, by 
suppressing the rum traffic. 

These coast Indians about Xorton Sound have 
a fashion of clipping their hair from the upper 
part of the head, leaving the lower portion to 
grow longer. This is then cut around in a 
circular fashion so as to have it "banged" on 
the forehead, after the style of the 3'oung ladies 
of the United States and other highh' civilized 
places. From the forehead the lower line is 
graduated around in a slope to the back of the 
neck. Now, when some of the Tennanai In- 
dians come down the Yukon and see this style, 
they adopt it as the "latest agony," and go 
home with a swaggering air as if just returned 
from London and Paris to Oshkosh. 

Some of these Indians have their noses pierced, 



DOGS AND DRIVERS. 185 

and a great many have two holes, one on each 
side of the lower lip, just below the corners of 
the mouth. In southern Alaska and in British 
Cohniibia, squaws have one such aperture, in 
which they wear an ivory ornament, sometimes 
an inch in width and a quarter of an inch in 
thickness, but here the men have two of these 
wounds. It is not an uncommon thing liere to 
see a vounir oirl o-oinfr alons^ with a short strino^ 
of beads pendant from her nose, the sight of 
which may be very fascinating among the young 
men of her tribe, but to one not accustomed to 
such ornamentation the effect at a distance of 
ten or fifteen paces is not particularly pleasing. 
A closer view, Avhen one comes to see exactly 
what it is, is not quite so shocking; and, pos- 
sibly, if one were only used to it, the fashion 
would be quite as tolerable as rings in the ears, 
banging the hair, and chewing gum. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION. 

ryiHERE are no fur seal nor sea-otter skins in 
-^ the trade amono- the Eskimos, but there is 
a character to the furs which tells of the country 
where they originate. White foxes, the Arctic 
hare — all white, Avhite 'wolves, white bear, and 
white deer skins, are common articles of trade. 
In addition to these are th« land otter, marten, 
American sable, mink, beaver, red fox, marmot 
or ground squirrel, and muskrat, as the princi- 
pal skins. The difference between martin anu 
American sable is one rather of degree than of 
kind. The Siberian sable, the most valuable of 
land furs (except silver-gray and black foxes), 
is darker than the American sable w^hen it is 
found in the woods where there is a periect 
shade. The scarcit}^ of trees makes the fur 
lighter in color, until, in the marten, it becomes 
a brown and, rarely, yellow. In the animal 
itself there appears to be no marked difference 
between the sable and the marten. The marten 
186 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION. 187 

is quick and bold enough to kill the porcupine ; 
and yet it can be easily tamed so that it will 
spring up in a sociable Avay and snatch the meat 
from its masterV plate. It is quicker than a cat, 
and is sure death on rats and mice. Whether it 
is called marten or American sable the animal 
is the same. The quality of the marten and 
sable, as well as the color, is afiected by local 
circumstances. When the snow is soft and 
light all the winter, the fur gets a bright polish 
and remains smooth and even on the surface. 
When the snoAv becomes hard and sharp, by 
packing and by thawing and freezing, it cuts 
the long fine hairs of the skins, producing un- 
even and harsh edges. This circumstance 
makes an important difterence in the value of 
the skin. 

Wolverines were formerly so much in demand 
among the coast Indians up this way, that the 
trading companies purchased them in Cook's 
Inlet and Bristol Bay for importation here, 
where they were used by the natives in trim- 
ming parkies. The wolverine is not only scarce 
among them, but it is a " medicine " animal, the 
Indian killing one setting every sort of food 
available and lighted candles, or oil-lamps, 
around the carcase for two da3's before skinning 
it. That is the custom amono- the interior 



188 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Indians who kill them. Upon the coast, how- 
ever, the wolverine is not found, and conse- 
quently the skins are in areat demand. They 
are not so largely imported from l)elow as 
formerly, being now brought down by traders 
from the upper Yukon. The parka, or fur 
robes, on the American side of the Straits, 
are made of the marmot or ground squirrel, 
trimmed with Avolverine around the lower edge 
of the skirt, the hood having a border of white 
wolf, which gives the face of the wearer a 
weird and fantastic appearance. The men's 
parkas are generally plain, except the wolver- 
ine border on the skirt and wolf on the hood ; 
but some of the vromen's robes are ver}^ orna- 
mental. They are cut circular at the l)ottom of 
the skirt, before and behind, leaving a space 
about twelve inches from top to bottom on each 
side. The lower portions of the skirt of the 
woman's parka are general I3' ornamented Avith 
Avhitc deerskin, land otter and fancy work with 
thread and dj^ed feathers. 

The finest parkies, however, are of fawn 
skin, and come from Sil^eria. They are richly 
embroidered on the flesh side with silk, in 
colors, and are very expensive, some rating 
as high as one hundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars. The common parka, such as is used by 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION, 189 

the ordinary Eskimos, and such as were pro- 
vided for the men of the " Jeannette," are 
cheap, being- made of squirrel skins, without 
ornamentation. They are warm, and warmth 
is what is required in the Arctic region. The 
hooded parka and the fancy deerskin boots, 
which complete the attire so far as visible, 
make a picturesque dress, admirably suited 
to the climate and the people. It is stated 
that the women wear leathern pantaloons be- 
neath this beautiful outer covering. 

For people, their habits and customs, imple- 
ments and dress ; for scenery and climate at 
this season of the year ; for salmon and wild- 
goose eggs, and an appetite that is backed hj 
digestive organs extraordinary, — this is one of 
the most interesting places to which civilized 
people, sweltering in the great cities of the 
Eastern States, could make summer excursions, 
albeit somewhat out of the route of palace cars. 
But for a permanent residence it cannot be com- 
mended. 

There are some half-dozen whites here, and 
they appear to enjoy life, but their minds are 
generally occupied by questions of trade, either 
in having it or preparing for it ; and, moreover, 
they all look forward to a time of leaving the 
country and returning to the haunts of civiliza- 



190 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

tion. Besides, the}' are not completely exiled, 
as they go down to San Francisco on a furlough 
once in every two or three years. The thought 
of these journeys buoys them up before they 
go and sustains them after they return. So 
they get through life and manage to keep them- 
selves in flesh. 

St. Michael's is a good place for the curiosity 
hunter to visit. The Indians up this way, with 
feathers through their noses, their fanciful fur 
clothing, their skin-boats, their dogs and sledges, 
their ivory -headed spears and arrows, their 
stone-lamps for burning blubber, and a hun- 
dred other queer commodities, furnish a fertile 
field for the collection of curios. Mammoth 
tusks are more plentiful al)out here than forest 
trees, and they ma}^ be had cheap as tire wood. 
Even stone axes are to be obtained occasionally, 
though they may be numbered with the friction 
fire-producers — among implements now obso- 
lete. Everything of this kind, or samples of all 
such articles, are in constant demand at that 
great repository of wonders, the Smithsonian 
Institute, which has emissaries in all parts of 
the country gathering cast-oft* clothing and 
worn-out implements among savages. 

Of all the cicrios from this country the most 
inexplicable was found near Fort Yukon several 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION. 191 

years ngo. At tliat time a Canadian who was 
then in the employ of the Alaska Commercial 
Company, discovered a skull about half a mile 
from the fort, which he could not "identify." 
It was apparently from some animal of the bo- 
vine kind, but what particular species was a 
mj'stery. Having spent some years on the 
Upper Missouri and on the Eed Eiver of the 
North, he was familiar with the buffiilo, and felt 
satisfied it could not be a buffalo skull ; beside 
buffalos are not found so far north as Fort 
Yukon, which is within the Arctic Circle. 

After puzzling his head over the mystery for 
months, he sent the skull down to the Com- 
pany's office in San Francisco, with an account 
of where it was found. There all efforts to 
identify it failed, and it was forwarded to the 
Smithsonian, accompanied byaAvritten explana- 
tion of its discovery. The scientists of the 
Smithsonian, spent long days and nights over it, 
and though they may not admit the fact, were 
at a loss to make a very succinct explanation 
of the character of the animal to Avhich it be- 
longed. It was finally pronounced the head of 
an extinct species of elk, and experts at once 
set to work making drawings and plaster 
models of the extinct animal. 

About three years ago the lucky finder of the 



192 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

skull learned that when Fort Yukon was sup- 
posed to be within British America the Hudson 
Bay Compan}^ imported a bull and a cow to 
that place. The bull died and the cow was 
killed for beef, having been latterly in a condi- 
tion of constant mourning for her departed 
lord and there is no longer any room for doubt 
that the skull which puzzled the Smithsonian 
scientists was a cow's skull and nothing less. It 
is possil)le that, as soon as the report of this dis- 
covery becomes public, the cow's skull ma}^ be 
ground up and used as a fertilizer on the beau- 
tiful Smithsonian grounds, the plaster casts re- 
duced to powder, and the records of the learned 
debates on the subject will be immediately de- 
stroyed. The professors may then deny the 
facts. 

Down about Sitka one hear some ver}^ possi- 
tive talk about "mines," and this breaks out, 
even up here, occasionally^ but in a subdued 
way. There may be gold up the Yukon, 
as some people affect to believe, but, if so, the 
diggings should be wonderfulh^ rich to be profi- 
table. In a country where the Avinters are of 
eight months' duration, and wliei-e the ther- 
mometer indicates sixty to seventy degrees 
below zero for a month at a time, with forty 
to fifty degrees for longer periods, the work 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION, 193 

done in the summer months ought to be well 
paid for. At all events, although there have 
been rumors of diggings, there has been no 
reliable information of mines in this extreme 
northern part of our possessions. 

So far as at present known this region is fit 
for nothing but the fur trade, and tiiat will prol)- 
ably never furnish profitable returns for nian}^ if 
any, more than those now engaged in it. The 
resources of an agricultural country may be 
developed, and the products increased, by rail- 
roads and steamboats, by immigration, and by 
improved machinery. The fur trade is such 
that, the more it is encouraged when open to 
competition, the sooner it declines and becomes 
exhausted. This is one branch of trade which 
will not endure stimulating, and if there is 
anything of value in the Yukon region, outside 
of the fur trade, it does not now make any 
demonstration. 

The Yukon is a wonderful river, capalde of 
carrying a tonnage equal to the Mississippi, l)ut 
there is nothing at present tributary to it that 
is capable of creating a commerce. Two stern- 
wheel steamers appear to ])e capable of satisfy- 
ing the wants of commerce upon the Yukon at 
present and for a long time to come. There 
are said to be immense valleys or bottom lands 



194 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

of ofreat richness of soil aloiii!: tlie Yukon and 
on some of its tributaries, and upon the Kusko- 
quim, south of the Yukon ; but the richest soil 
is valueless if the climate be such that nothing- 
for the benefit of man Avill grow and ripen in it. 
There is no timber along this northern coast, 
although spruce is abundant in the interior, Ijut 
the value of this cannot be appreciated. Possi- 
bly cattle might be raised here if grass would 
ripen and hay could be procured for winter 
foddering, l)ut when live-stock may be raised 
without this trouble and unavoidable expense 
of this country several thousand miles nearer to 
market, the advantages of Alaska as a pastoral 
region can hardly be made apparent during the 
present century. Alaska is really of little value 
to our government be^^ond what is derived from 
the seal islands, rent, and tax, and the vague 
benefits from the fur trade in general. But the 
coast might be surve^^ed in the interests of nav- 
io-ation, thouoh it mioht take years to make a 
reliable chart of that portion from Bristol Bay 
to Norton Sound. There might be no profit in 
it, but a great nation ought to know something 
about its own possessions, and particularly 
about its coasts and border lines ; and the navy 
or some other department could find employ- 
ment up here in many places. Profit, however, 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION. 195 

in the way of dollars and cents, to be returned 
at any near day, should not be looked for. If 
the soundings are ever made, it should only be 
as a matter of national pride, and that ought to 
be understood. They could hardly be of anj' 
value to the people of Alaska, nor could they 
do much toward developing a country which is 
almost entirely without such natural resources 
as can be turned to any good account. While 
upon this subject I wish to make a few 
meteorological observations drawn from offi- 
cial and unofficial records. I am aware that 
there are people interested in Alaska who main- 
tain that this Territory is suited for agricul- 
tural purposes because they honestly believe in 
the country, and because a few potatoes and 
hardier roots have been grown here, but in 
exceedingly limited quantities. A record of 
the weather up the Yukon was made at Fort 
Eeliance, about latitude 65°, longitude 142° 
west. Fort Eeliance, at which point it was 
taken from a spirit thermometer hy the trader 
"Jack" McQuestin, winter of 1878-9, is four 
hundred and fifty miles by the course of the 
river above Fort Yukon, but not so far to the 
northward, the latter being just within the Arc- 
tic Circle, and the most northerly regular trad- 
ing-post in any part of the United States or its 



196 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

Temtories. As the climate in the interior is 
pronounced liighly satisfactory by Alaskan en- 
thusiasts, and as several persons declare the 
possibiUties of its agricultural products to be 
exceeding! 3^ great, these figures may be of 
interest to those seeking information concerning 
the countr\\ 

The highest temperature of the year 1878 at 
Fort Reliance was IT above zero, on ]May 14 
and September 13, dates which might be called 
the beo'innino: and end of summer. The lowest 
temperature of the winter was 60° below on the 
21st of February, 1879. On February 20, four 
observations, made at 9 a.m., 12m., 6 p.m., 
and 9 p.:\i., aggregated 200, an average of 50° 
below zero for the entire day. The mean for 
the lowest month in that winter, February, 
was 25^° below ; the highest mean for any 
month w^as in May, 60° above. 

On the 6th of February the thermometer indi- 
cated a rise of temperature, during a southwest 
wind, from 28° below at 7 a.m. to zero at noon, 
to 14° above at 3 p.m.. then down again to 18° 
below at 5 p.m., and 28° below at 10 p.m. 
This w^as a variation of 56° in one day. At 
Fort Eeliance, in the winter of 1855-6, as is 
alleged by one of the traders, a two-pound bot- 
tle of quicksilver in a cabin remained frozen for 



PRODUCTS OF THE YUKON REGION. 197 

two weeks. At St. Michael's, Norton Sound, 
in 1878, the highest thermometer was in July, 
73° above, and the lowest in February, 25° 
below. The winter mean for November, De- 
cember, February, and March, was 60° below. 
The summer mean for June, July, and August 
w^as 50° above. The yearly mean was 29° 
above. 

The rainMl last year, including melted snow, 
was but 10.8 inches. The highest velocity of 
the Avind per hour was in August, 74 miles, 
and the total wind in that month was 11,279 
miles. The highest temperature at St. Michael's 
in five years was 75° above ; lowest, 55° below. 

It may possibly be objected that the Yukon 
w^eather reports quoted above are from an ex- 
treme northerly district, Avhich is true ; but it 
is asserted by Alaskan advocates that though 
the coast line from Cape Fox — the southern ex- 
tremity of the Territory — to Sitka is too foggy, 
rainy, and swampy, the inland soil and climate 
are superior. It is not probable, however, that 
the country immediately back of Sitka is much 
more favorable than further to the northward, 
beins: of great altitude and remo\ed from the 
influence of sea currents, though undoubtedly 
there are some diflferences, perhaps not always 
in favor of the Sitka latitude. 



198 



A TRIP TO ALASKA. 



As a set-ofF for the Yukon and St. Michael's 
record I copy from the log of the ''Rush" the 
weather record of the Aleutian Islands during 
the month of June, 1879. This record was 
written down every four hours, or six times a 
day, from Ukolonoy, just south of the peninsula 
of Alaska, to Onalaska and Attou, within a belt 
between 52^ and 55° 10' north latitude, reaching 
briefly as high as 57° — the fur seal islands. 
This includes the entire scope of the Aleutian 
Archipelago, which has been recommended by 
some persons who never saw Alaska as desira- 
ble for the location of penal colonies — where 
men miaht as^riculturally earn their own livino-s 
and get themselves new family relations. Here 
is the June weather of the Aleutian Islands — 
about same latitude as Sitka. 



Date. 


Thermometer. 


Weather. 


June 1 . . 


mean 39 . 


. Foggy. 


" 2 . . 




40 . 


. . Fog, squalls, and rain. 


" 3 . . 




391 . 


. 


" 4 . . 




40 . 


" 


" 5 . . 




39 . 


. Hail and snow squalls. 


" 6 . . 




40 . 


. Cloudy and rain squalls 


" 7 . . 




41t . 


. Squally and rainy. 


" 8 . . 




44 . 


. Cloudy '' 


" 9 . . 




41 . 


. Fog " " 


" 10 . . 




40 . 


. Squally " 


" 11 . . 




41 . 


. Breezy " 


" 12 . . 




38 . 


. Squalls, sleet, and rain. 



PRODUCT,^ OF THE YUKON REGION. 



199 



Date. 


Thermometer. 


Weather. 


June 13 . . 


. mean 36 


. Squalls, sleet, and rain 


" 14 . . 


. " 39f . 


. . Light breeze, clear. 


" 15 . . 


. " 37 . 


. . Frequent snow squalls. 


- 16 . . 


. " 38 . 


. Calm, but overcast. . 


" 17 . . 


" 39 . 


. Light airs, overcast. 


" 18 . . 


" 38 . 


. Misty, overcast. 


" 19 . . 


" 43 . 


• J^'OooJ' squally, thick. 


- 20 . . . 


" 40^ . 


. Heavy squalls, thick. 


" 21 . . 


" 39f . 


. Thick, rainy, squalls. 


" 22 . . 


" 39 . 


and rainy. 


" 23 . . 


" 42 . 


" " 


" 24 . . . 


" 401 . 


. Changeable, with rain. 


" 25 . . . 


'^ 42 . 


. Partly clear. 


" 26 . . . 


" 391 . 


. Overcast. 


" 27 . . 


- 381 . 


. Partly clear. 


" 28 . . . 


- 40| . 


. Overcast. 


" 29 . . 


" 39 . 


• Foggy and misty. 


" 30 . . . 


" 46i . 


. Partly clear. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE SU3IMER CROP OF SEALS. 

/^N the afternoon of July 23, the "Rush" 
■^ steamed out from St. ^Michael's and again 
headed for the fur-seal island of St. Paul. 
Morton Sound was as smooth as a mill-pond, 
and Behring Sea showed only a slight ripple, 
called up by a soft, western breeze. 

The water along the coast from Norton 
Sound down to the mouth of the Kuskoquini 
is so shoal that it is dangerous for a ship to 
attempt the passage, in places, within ten miles 
of land. Going southward till the island of 
Nunivak was abeam, the ''Rush" was stopped 
once every hour for soundings, a result of 
whi(;h was that, out of sight of the land, the 
water was found only deep enough for a good 
anchorao-e. The mouths of the Yukon have 
been depositing sand along the eastern shore 
of this portion of Behring Sea to such an ex- 
tent that it is now regarded by all navigators in 
these waters as particularly dangerous. An- 

200 



THE SUMMER CROP OF SEALS. 201 

other element of danger is found in the fact 
that the coast line, as appears from frequent 
and reliable observations by such navigators 
as are compelled to come this way, is set 
about ten miles too far to the eastward, on 
all the charts. The entire coast from Nuni- 
vak, at least, to Norton Sound, ought to be 
surveyed, and soundings taken, so as to afibrd 
reliable information, where at present too much 
is left to conjecture. 

We experienced the brightest and most de- 
lightful weather from St. Michael's till the 
morning of the 26th, Avhen a thick fog shut 
down, so that no observation of our position 
could be had. We were headed for St. Paul's, 
and h\ noon had run our distance out ; but the 
weather was so thick it was impossible to know 
whether we were to the eastward or the west- 
w^ard of the land we wanted to make. In these 
waters, currents are continually setting vessels 
out of their courses, which is not so serious a 
matter w^hen observations can be taken daily 
and corrections made by the way ; but when a 
vessel is run for da^^s by compass and dead 
reckonino* onlv, the currents sometimes plav 
sad havoc with the calculations, and a ship 
may be fifty or sixty miles out of position 
without anybody being blameable. 



202 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

The foa' around the Seal Islands is peculiar 
in some respects. The sun may be shining 
ov^erhead all day, so that the weather appears 
to ])e always at the clearing-up point, but the 
clearino- does not take place. The foo' hansfs 
low and thick all around, so as to cut off the 
line of vision not more than a ship-length away, 
even wliile the sun is smiling upon the anxious 
navigator. The fog is of such a thick, creamy 
consistenc)', that it wraps itself around the rig- 
ging, finally stretching down and dropping off 
like molasses. The man on the forecastle, offi- 
cers in charge of the deck, and the captain, try 
to look through it until their eyes are as red as 
if they had been half roasted. Having run the 
distance, according to dead reckoning, aV)out 
noon on the 26th, the " Kush " was slowed down 
to the consumption of one bucket of coal per 
hour, and we began cautiously feeling for the 
island. The course is altered to the eastward, 
and soundings are taken every half-hour. They 
commence at 19 fathoms and gradually run up 
to 20, 22, 25, 30 and 35. The charts do not 
give any soundings about St. Paul's, and if we 
had been near the land we must now be getting 
away from it. 

The soundings being unsatisfactory, the course 
is changed, and we go slowly feeling our way 



THE SUMMER CROP OF SEALS, 203 

on a northern tack. The captain requests those 
on the " house " with him to keep their weather- 
nostril open for a sniff* of the seal which at this 
season is very pronounced, but neither smelliuir 
nor seeing is able to reveal the land. The vessel 
is laid on a course of north-northeast, and look- 
ing and sniffing continues, but without results. 
In this manner the afternoon passes, and after 
supper we iind ourselves still hunting for the 
land, which we know is somewhere stuck awa}- 
in that thick fog. 

It begins to look as if we were doomed to 
make a night of it, when the captain and pilot, 
who have been leaning upon the pilot-house, 
crawl up in a nervous sort of way, trying to 
make something out of a slightly denser line 
than the great bulk of the fog. The irregular 
outline, as of hills here and there, give it an 
appearance of land, and as the helm is put 
a-port and the " Rush " comes around to get the 
wind abeam, it is pronounced land, sure enough, 
and an odor as of old rain-water in a cistern 
comes al)oard, succeeded by a stronger smell, 
and, as the land is neared, the outlines and 
smell become more distinct, the bellowing of 
bull seals is heard, the blaating of the cows 
mingles with the roar; the " ow, ow ! " of the 
pups can be distinguished, and, with the sounds 



204 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

of a mammoth cattle-show, with the odors of a 
poultry exhibition, magnitied to the 6,385th de- 
gree, you have a fur-seal rookery on your weather 
beam late in July. The noise ceases not by day 
nor by night, and the smell is something never 
to be forgotten. There may be other odors like 
it, but there is nothing and no place that has so 
much of it, for, in addition to the millions of 
seals living upon one island at this time, there 
are the carcasses of 75,000 killed, wdiich, divested 
of their skins, for fashion, now lie decomposing 
upon the ground. There w^ould be 80,000 car- 
casses, but some of them have been eaten by 
the natives. 

When we sailed from St. Paul's on the 14th of 
June, 10,557 seals had been killed for the year's 
take. On the 16th of July the killing of the 
80,000 Avas completed, and on the same day 
the last of St. George's quota of 20,000 Avere 
laid low. This was the quickest work and 
earliest close for a full allowance ever known to 
this seal-killing since the present lessees have 
been in possession. It was extremely fortu- 
nate for the company that the work was done 
so rapidly, for there has l)een a hot, dry spell 
since, which drove even the old bulls into the 
water, and which would prevent driving at this 
time. 



THE SUMMER CHOP OF SEALS. 205 

On our arrival here Dr. White, surgeon of 
the "Rush," being desirous of studying seal 
anatomy, made a temporary exchange of posi- 
tion with Dr. Kell}', the physician on the 
island, by which the latter took charge of the 
steamers sick roll, not an alarming one, while 
the former physicked the islanders and dis- 
sected seals for a few weeks. As Captain 
Bailey was anxious to get dowai to Onalaska 
for coal and water, this writer also parted com- 
pany with the " Rush," remaining to see more 
of the seals, and to go dowm on the steamer 
'' St. Paul." We enjoyed a great deal of fur- 
seal society, varied by vain efforts to get at the 
sea-bird's nests on the cliffs, and yelped at by 
impudent foxes. 

It is a humiliatins: thino- to have a fox stand 
oft' about ten rods and bark at you, or follow 
you around, smelling at your heels ; but they 
will do it here. Foxes here are plentiful 
and fat and saucy at this time of year. They 
can always get plenty of seal meat during the 
summer and autumn. In the spring they eat 
eggs and sea-fowl, but in the winter they fall 
into traps and lose their valuable skins. Going 
out along the bluffs here, fox-trails may be seen 
leading in the direction of the places where the 
sea-birds deposit their eggs, but the birds seem 



2fl6 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

to know just how far m fox or a man can go 
along, or up, or down the face of the cliffs, for 
they take up positions in most unaccessil)le 
places, from Avhich they gaze at the Avould-be 
intruder with that calm demeanor only acquired 
by confidence in moral rectitude or physical 
security. 

These sea-birds lay on a shelf of rock so 
narrow that they cannot sit, but must stand, 
while setting, with neck stretched up the face 
of the wall in front of them, and there they 
remain for weeks, counting the possible chicks 
from one green and white mottled egg. They 
guard it as carefully as though it contained a 
future president of the United States. From 
the top of the bluff the sea-birds may be robbed 
by a reckless man let down with a rope ; but 
from the l)ottom or the side approach they are 
safe, no matter hoW' easy the way and accessi- 
ble the position may appear at a few paces 
distant. We tried it again and again, till the 
doctor had to be hauled a few times, out of 
places from which he could not extricate him- 
self, after Avhich he came to the conclusion 
that it was too late in the season for a white 
man to rob bird's nests, so he hired some of the 
natives to do it. 

The foxes, however, probably understand the 



THE SUMMER CROP OF SEALS. 207 

nest-robbing business better, and no doubt they 
2:et occasional eofo^s in various stao^es of incuba- 
tion for breakfast, and have many a spring 
puffin, murre, or gull for dinner. The mainstay 
of the foxes for fresh meat in the summer, how- 
ever, is pup seal, young and tender, being milk 
nurtured and quite vealy in character. On St. 
George's, where foxes are more numerous than 
on St. Paul's, half a dozen of them will get 
around a yearling seal and drive him back to 
where they want him, so as to save the trouble 
of carrying the meat after killing. The St. 
Georofe's foxes mio-ht eat dried seal meat all 
winter, if they were provident as they are bold 
and cunning. 

The bull seals are not so aggressive in the 
latter part of July as about the first of June. 
Early in the season, on the approach of a man, 
they roar and rush at him, holding ground for 
their expected families. Now, on being ap- 
proached by searchers after scientific informa- 
tion, they roar and run awaj^ scrambling over 
the pups regardless of results, and leaving the 
mothers to follow as fast as they can, which 
fine instinct they rapidly obe}^, and the little 
black lumps of pups crowd together, turn up 
their pug noses and bleat to the best of their 
extraordinary ability. 



208 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

The toughness of the pups is astonishing. 
The patriarch weighing six hundred pounds 
flops and tumbles over a mass meeting of pups, 
like a runaway cart going through a primary 
picnic ; and after the event the youngsters pull 
themselves toijether, di": the sand out of their 
mouths, eyes, and nostrils, and, finding nobody 
hurt, all begin to bawl. An old bull seal has 
no more regard for ten or twenty pups than the 
devil has for a penny box of matches. In the 
spring, when the patriarch is alone, he feeds 
his imagination with fancy pictures of family 
delights, the larger the family the better ; and 
then he is ready to fight for his rights ; but 
after a few Aveeks' experience with a large 
harem and a nursery of corresponding dimen- 
sions to look to da}' and night, the old fellow 
becomes nervous and is more inclined to fly 
than to shed the l^lood of man. At this season 
a sheep may put an entire rookerj" to rout. 

Fog is indispensable to seal comfort on the 
rookeries and hauling-grounds, but of course 
the fog lifts at times, and then the seals seek 
the soothing influence of sea bathing. Though 
the fo2r of this resfion is thick as molasses, it 
can come and go in a minute. From clear, 
bright skies and a horizon at the farthest possi- 
ble extremity, it changes to an obscurity that 



THE SUMMER CROP OF SEALS. 209 

shuts out the view of a man's own nose, and 
another lightning change brings back the sun. 

On the day after our return to the ishuid, the 
steamer "St. Paul" started to go around from 
the eastern to the western anchorage to take on 
sealskins. The distance is about three miles. 
The atmosphere was clear when she got under 
way at seven o'clock in the morning, but 1)efore 
she rounded the point, a quarter of an hour 
later, the fog fell and the land was shut out from 
view. She should have been at anchor within 
half an hour after getting under way, but she 
did not come in on time, and the steam-launch 
went out alono^ shore lookino- for her. The 
"St. Paul" blew a whistle a mile away, the 
launch answered ; and the big steamship and 
the little launch were blowinsf and whisth'no^, 
and hunting for each other till two in the after- 
noon, when the smaller found the larger and led 
her in so close that the top of the blufls hung 
almost overhead before the land was seen and 
the anchor let go. Yet the steamer was never 
a mile from the land during that five or six 
hours of prospecting. 

When the fog lifts and the sun shines, the fur 
seals take to the water. This is one of the most 
interestimi: occasions for watchimr them. First 
the young bachelors, which occupy hauling 



210 A TBIP TO ALASKA. 

grounds convenient to the 1)reeding rookeries, 
go out — free and foot-loose vagal )ond8 that they 
are — having no family cares to interfere with 
perfect comfort, so far as perfect independence 
goes. They dive into the Avater and spring out 
of it, they twist and turn and roll and douV)le 
up and straighten out, float upon their backs, 
scratch their ears with their hind flippers, rub 
their noses with their fore flippers, and have a 
thorough Avash, getting the sand out of their fur, 
cooling oft\ and making themselves quite com- 
fortable. They enjoy their bathing and take 
plenty of it when once in the water, having 
nothing else to do. 

As the heat increases the females beg ofi" from 
their lords and masters, and by ones and twos 
they get away generally at this time, leaving the 
pups behind. But even when the}^ are only six 
weeks old the young ones are also driven down 
to the water on hot days, and they rapidly 
learn to swim. When the thermometer went 
up to flfty-eight in the shade, even the old bulls 
relaxed somewhat of their rigid rules, and went 
swimming also, showing how weak even a patri- 
archal seal may be during dog-days. When 
the seals are all in the water it has the appear- 
ance of being absolutely thickened by them. 
They twist, tumble, and turn in every direction. 



THE SUMMER CROP OF SEALS. 211 

thousands upon thousands of heads and flippers 
beini!: visil^le alono^ the bays for miles in lena'th, 
and extending outward till heads and flippers 
become mere specks. At times a fleet of them 
will swim awav in line, their noses alone beins: 
visible in long rows. Then they start oflf as 
if possessed by demons, forcing themselves out 
clear of the water, and disappearing, to break 
forth again mider and over in a lively chase, 
indicating wonderful strength and powers of 
endurance. 

Being slightly cooled and refreshed, the bulls 
are the first to land again, reminded, perhaps, 
of home aftliirs and the uncertainty of domestic 
relations in the seal kingdom. They hasten to 
the beach, and, taking a hurried look around, 
set up a roar, and, without paying the slightest 
attention to the pups, await the arrival of the 
partners of their rocky homesteads. The " cows," 
reminded of their progeny, come out next and 
proceed to find the young. Each cow seems 
to have a different tone to her snarling, and as 
she goes peering into every group of pups the 
youno'sters toddle out and irreet her, willino- to 
accept nourishment from any mother that will 
offer it ; but though the young all look alike, 
being of the same age, color, and condition, the 
dams know, or think they know, their ow^n, and 



212 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

pick them out from hundreds of other clamorous 
applicants. Either the cows always know their 
own by their smell, or, like gentlemen at a party 
Avith their umbrellas, each one takes what is 
believed to be the best, leaving the worst to the 
latest. 



o 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ALEUT COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

N the 30th of July the steamer " St. Paul" 
sailed out of the fog surrounding the island 
which bears the same name as herself, having on 
board a cargo valued at more than a million dol- 
lars, for San Francisco. In addition to the seal- 
skins, she had in her hold last winter's take of 
land furs for the Alaska Commercial Company 
from the Yukon district. The latter, along with 
a hundred barrels of seal meat and a large quan- 
tity of oil, Avere discharged at Onalaska, where 
we arrived on the 1st of August, having been 
fog-bound outside for half a day. Every year 
the company brings down a large amount of seal 
meat, which is distributed gratuitously among 
the Onalaska people, along with seal oil, which 
is almost indispensable among these people for 
food. The oil is a real luxury, and is used 
liberally, when available, to soften their dried 
fish. When the large casks, containing two 
hundred and fifty gallons of oil each, Avere rolled 

213 



214 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

up the wharf here, to be pumped into barrels 
for distribution, the iricklings from the pump 
were scooped up on Aleut ringers and sipped 
into Aleut mouths, as the gamins on Avharves in 
the East suck the syrup that leaks from barrels 
of saccharine sweets. But seal meat and oil 
were not the only important shipments by the 
steamer " St. Paul" from the seal islands to On- 
alaska. There came down twenty Onalaska 
men who had been taken up last spring as labor- 
ers, and as Onalaska Aleuts are not so rich as 
those of the seal islands, their return with their 
earnings made quite an important event for this 
community. Yet this was not all that contrib- 
uted to the importance of the occasion. The 
steamer brought down four young men from St. 
George's, and live from St. Paul's, looking for 
wives. It should be known that the fur-seal 
islanders are the creme de la creme of Aleut 
society. They earn more money and live 
better than any other Aleuts, and naturally 
they become fascinating fellows as soon as they 
land among the maidens of Onalaska. 

Of course there are young women who desire 
to marry on the fur-seal islands, but the church 
Avill not permit marriages within the degree of 
third-cousin consanguinity, and. what makes the 
matter more oppressive, a relationship equally 



ALEUT COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 215 

.•miHmng is manufMctured at the baptismal font. 
An Aleut may not marry the son or daughter, 
nor niece, nor nephew, nor any relation within 
the seventh degree of his or her godfather or 
godmother. This is the solemn truth, and al- 
though people ought to be glad to have relations, 
when they are rich, there is such a thing as hav- 
ing too many when they are poor. There is 
now on St. George's a marriageable young 
woman, unexceptional from an Aleut point of 
view, who is so related by ties of consanguinity 
with what we would call remote cousins, and so 
bcAvilderingly connected by baptism with god- 
fathers and godmothers and their relations, that 
she cannot marry upon the island, although there 
are plenty of young men there who need wives, 
and who would like to have her. She got her 
temper up about it, and said she would never 
marry off the island, which is a noble sort of 
self-sacrifice highly worthy of admiration. When 
the seal islanders come down to Onalaska they 
lay siege to all the marriageable women in the 
settlement, and marriages begin at once. Those 
who cannot get wives here — and some such 
cases are reported — ask the Compan}' to fur- 
nish them free transportation " out ^A'est " to 
Atka, three hundred miles away. At the same 
time there is a surplus of female population on 



216 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the fur-seal islands who won't marry anybody 
but a fur-sealer, because they have been brought 
up in an aristocratic way in frame cottages, and 
provided with wardrobes which enable them to 
change dresses seven times a day. Such are the 
advantages and disadvantages of female educa- 
tion among the fur-sealers. 

There is not much of the spooney business in 
Aleut courtship. The steamer landed the wife- 
hunting seal-skinners on Friday. On Saturday 
one of them was asked, '' Are you married yet ? " 
"Not yet, but I shall be to-morrow." ''Who 
are you going to marry ? " '' I don't know 3^et." 

On Sunday, two days after the arrival of the 
wife hunters, three of them were married, two 
couples at one time and one at another. The 
three couples would have been executed together 
but there Avere only four crowns among the 
church properties. Crowns and candles are 
indispensable at these weddings. When mar- 
rying a couple, the priest appears in full 
vestments, with the tall, slighth^ tapering 
cotfee-pot-shaped velvet hat ; and a choir 
of male voices chant nasal responses to the 
long service read by his reverence. The cou- 
pies to be married are stood up in a ro^v, the 
first step being to place a lighted candle, deco- 
rated with a crimson bow, in each hand. Then 



ALEUT (JOUETiSHIV AND MARRIAGE, 217 

the reading commences, and continues till the 
priest shows signs of fatigue, when the attend- 
ant brings out blessed rings on a blessed tray, 
and each one puts on his or her ring, taken at 
random from the tray, man and Avoman l)eing 
treated alike in this respect. After the rings 
there is more reading, with responses from the 
nasal choir ; and when the priest becomes ex- 
hausted again the blessed crowns are brought 
out. On this occasion there were four crowns, — 
two which were old and lustreless, and two which 
were not only new, but brilliant with rubies, 
emeralds, and diamonds, or wdiat looked like 
them, and answered every purpose just as well. 
There stood the two couples, like the kings and 
queens of a chessboard, with crowns upon heads 
which did not fit them. 

Of the two couples in this case one bride, of 
a Russian appearance, was dressed in a light silk 
with a purple stripe ; she nad a blue bow at her 
throat, and a pink sash around her waist. Her 
hair had been braided damp over night, and 
hung in waves down her shoulders. Her eyes 
were downcast constantly during the ceremony, 
and her nose, long and straight, pointed sharply 
toward the floor in an ominous manner. She 
wore a cynical sort of smile, like that of an ex- 
perienced circuit preacher when he knows that 



218 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the other brother is o^ettinof nothiiiof the better 
of him in the pending horse-trade. The crown 
which the groom of this couple wore Avas much 
too small for him, being a great, large-headed 
fellow with a thick neck, high cheek bones, and 
a twenty-pound fist, so that when he should 
have bowed he dared not, knowing that if he 
attempted it his crown would tumble to the floor. 
On the other hand the bride's crown was alto- 
gether too laro-e for her, and, wearins: her abun- 
dant hair down her back on that day only gave 
the crown a greater chance to settle. If she 
had worn it in a coil on the back of her head, or 
in a braid clubbed up behind, or in a pad on top 
a la pomjpadom\ or en chignon, or watteau, or 
in any of the thousand and one styles known to 
modern capillary engineering, the crown might 
have been stayed in some sort of a genteel posi- 
tion. But it settled down too far at first, and 
every time she bowed in response to the words 
read by the priest, and every time she nodded 
in reply to the questions, if she would obey, 
&c., with the hardly-ever smile upon her re- 
signed face, the crown sunk lower and lower 
till it got down over her ears ; and when the 
priest led the couple, hand in hand, three 
times around the little stand that served as an 
altar on this occasion, she looked like the 



ALEUT COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 219 

most abandoned creature in the world, and as 
if she did not care who knew it. Of course 
the effect was all due to the crown coming 
down over her ears and to the Mephistophelean 
smile upon he.r countenance, which deepened as 
the crown descended, but it was enough to scare 
all thousfht of marrvino^ in Onaiaska out of the 
head of any reflecting man. 

The other bride was a Japanese-looking Aleut, 
black hair, narrow, slanting eyes, and in person 
short and stout. She wore a gingham dress, 
and was not only very plain, but evidently not 
a person of high standing in society, in conse- 
quence of which she attracted little attention, 
but she was married as much as any of them. 
The third couple were joined similarly soon 
after, and next day the three seal-skinners paid 
five dollars each for the candles which had 
lighted them into the promising state of matri- 
mony. 

About the nicest-lookins^ lot of Aleut women 
we saw on this cruise in Alaska were at Kyska 
for the summer, belonging, when at home, in 
Atka, and being at the time away with the otter 
hunters ; and if the St. Paul and St. George 
fellows, could get among them, no doubt they 
would marry and return home with wives that 
would breed the most delightful jealousies and 



220 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

discords among the matrons of the fur-seal 
islands, who are very proud, considering them- 
selves the elite of Alaska society, but Avho are 
not all so good-looking as those of Atka ; and 
that fact Avoukl place them at a decided disad- 
vantage in the men's opinion, for a great many 
of these fellows appear to, be sufficiently civil- 
ized to prefer beauty to brains in a wife. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A FATED POLAR CRUISER. 

TT^OR a month or more the daily question had 
-*- been, "Where is the ' Jeannette ' " ? She 
was expected at Onalaska by the first of July, 
then on the second, third, fourth — the "glori- 
ous," and so on through the entire thirty one 
days of the month. She was expected at Ona- 
laska, at St. Pauls, at St. Michael's. When 
the '' Rush " was steamintr down Behrino: Straits 
on the evening of the 15th of July, everybody 
below was called on deck to see the " Jeannette" 
coming up under full sail. There she was, hull 
down, with standing jib, foresail, mainsail, main- 
topsail, and mizzen-sail, as it appeared, boom- 
ing along with a stiff southwester. Presently 
our glasses revealed her coal consort on her 
starboard quarter ; but about the same time the 
distance between the " Jeannette's" fore and 
mainmast was increasing to a remarkable degree 
and land was looming up l)ey()nd her. The 
ships were soon transformed into snow that was 

221 



'222 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

seen tbrouoh the fosf before the outhnes of Sledo^e 
Ishiiid — on which it lay in gulches — were dis- 
cernil)le, and that was the phantom " Jeannette." 

At Onalaska the '"Jeannette" and Christ- 
mas were finally coupled together in the prom- 
ise that they were coming, and when the "Rush" 
arrived down from the north, brinoino; no tidino-s 
and hearing none of the expedition, the long- 
looked-for "Jeannette" w^as given up for the 
year There were various, theories as to why 
she did not arrrive. One was that San Fran- 
cisco offered superior advantages as a Avinter 
station for a vessel in search of the North Pole. 
Another, that she had been found unseaworthy. 
A third, that she had started through the inland 
passage to Sitka, and been "piled up" on some 
one of the numerous reefs to be found on that 
route. 

About one o'clock on the afternoon of August 
2, it was ascertained that a ship believed to be 
the "Jeannette" w^as standing in b}^ Kallekhta 
Pomt. Then the fog closed in again and the 
ship was shut out from sight, having been seen 
but for a few moments. The pilot of the 
"Push" jumped mto the middle of a three-holed 
bidarkie, and Avith an Aleut before and one 
behind, went paddHng out to meet the stran- 
gers. The bidarkie had been long out of sight 



A FATED POLAR CRUISER. 223 

in the fog before anything could be seen of the 
bound-in ship, but finally she loomed up in the 
fog, and the pilot was upon the bridge, brnignig 
her around the reef that stretches almost across 
the harbor, within a hundred yards of the set- 
tlement. At half-past three in the afternoon of 
the 2d of August, 1879, the " Jeannette" was 
moored to the buoy in the inner harbor, within 
a hundred yards of the "Rush" at anchor, and 
about the same distance from the " St. Paul" at 
the wharf. It was the first time that three 
steamships were seen in this small harbor at one 
time, but it is not so uncommon a sight these 
later years. 

The " Jeannette " was about as ugly a craft as 
ever was set afloat, and as she came in with a 
heavy list to port, §he looked like a half- 
whipped hog making leeway out of a rough- 
and-tumble fight. She was even uglier than 
she looked, having been twenty-five days mak- 
ing the passage from San Francisco, about 
twenty-one hundred miles, and consuming one 
hundred and sixty tons of coal — enough to last 
the "St. Paul" — more than double than the 
" Jeannette's" tonnage — the trip to the seal 
islands and back to San Francisco. Five knots 
an hour was considered good work for the 
"Jeannette" on the trip up, and six knots was 



224 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

the very utmost that could be forced out of her. 
The boilers were ridiculously^ small for the work 
to be done, and the engine might have been 
thrown overboard by Noah as too much of a 
dead w^eight to the ark. The whole machinery 
seemed to have been constructed for a maxi- 
mum consumption of coal with a minimum of 
distance, and in this respect it w\as wonderful. 
She consumed a ton of coal for about every 
thirteen miles from San Francisco, wdiile the 
" Rush," during the month of July, made fifty- 
four miles for every ton of coal used, and aver- 
aged about seven and a half knots per hour, 
when not stopping for hourly soundings. The 
" Jeamiette" took on one hundred and fifty tons 
of coal at Onalaska, and was to have another 
hundred tons at St. Michael's. She was about 
two months too late to accomplish an^^thing the 
first year. She ought to have left San Fran- 
cisco early m May, instead of in July ; then she 
would have had a chance to go as far as any 
ship has ever been and prepare for winter. In 
addition to the coal taken on here, the " Jean- 
nette " also received from the superintendent of 
the Onalaska district for the Alaska Commer- 
cial Company twenty-five "kamleikas," or water- 
proof skin shirts, twenty-five seal blankets, 
sixteen marmot blankets, thirty reindeer skins, 



A FATED POL AM CRUISER. 225 

twenty-five reindeer sleeping-bags, sixteen rein- 
deer coats, twenty-seven marmot coats, a lot of 
mittens and snow-shoes, and twelve thousand 
''eucali" or dried salmon. These articles, as 
Avell as the coal, were donated by the Alaska 
Commercial Company ; General Miller, then 
president, having provided Captain De Long 
with carte blanche for anything he might want, 
if procurable at their stations. 

As the "Rush" was to leave Onalaska on 
August 4th for the Island of Nunivak, the " St. 
Paul" being announced to sail for 'Frisco on 
the 5th, and the " Jeannette " to struggle out on 
the 6th or 7th for St. Michael's, a dinner was 
given at the company's house to Captains Bailey, 
Erskine, and De Lons^, and officers of the 
"Rush" and "Jeannette." It was a quiet, socia- 
ble dinner, without toasts or speeches, and a 
very pleasant gathering it proved to be. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

A WRECK. 

/^N the 30th of July, 1879, a ship's dmgy 
^-^ with foresail and jib set came sailing into 
the harbor of Onalaska, having four persons 
aboard. These persons were Mr. Beresford, 
mate, a colored man, — second mate, and two 
seamen of the once notorious bris: " Timandra,'' 
a trader, with such a reputation for selling rum 
to the Eskimos that her late captain. Ravens, 
could not ofet a clearance from the custom-house 
in San Francisco ; so she was sent out in com- 
mand of Mr. Thomas, formerly her mate, and 
Beresford was shipped as navigating officer. 
She cleared from San Francisco for the Sand- 
w^ich Islands for the purpose of taking rum 
aboard, and Ravens, her old captain, got a 
license as pilot of the "Ellen J. McKinnon."" 
starting north in her. She was wrecked ; Cap- 
tain Ravens lacing washed out of the rigging, 
and all hands losing their lives, some suddenl}', 
and others by the slow process of starvation, 
except one man, w^ho was rescued after fifteen 

226 



A WRECK. 227 

days of horrible suffering on the wreck, which 
continued to float, water-logged. The "Mc- 
Kinnon " had a cars^o of o^eneral merchandise on 
board for trade among the Aleuts and the 
Indians of Behring Straits, while the "Timan- 
dra" had rum, arms, and ammunition as the 
chief commodities in her cargo. The two ves- 
sels were to have met at one of two places 
agreed on, and, after interchanging cargoes, 
proceed to the trading-grounds under command 
of Captain Ravens. 

On the 8th of March the " Timandra " got 
under way from San Francisco. She left Hono- 
lulu April 9, and arrived without accident in 
Oonimak Pass, to the eastward of Onalaska, 
May 4. Not finding the " McKinnon " here, and 
supposing her to be in advance of him, Captain 
Thomas stood for Nunivak, and arrived off* that 
island on the 10th of May. To his surprise the 
"McKinnon" was not there, but, not doubting 
that she Avould come, and not knowing what to 
do without the presence of Captain Eavens or 
further orders, the 1:>rig was kept oft' and on at 
Xunivak without an}^ event of interest occurring 
until May 20, when she struck on a sand bar off" 
the northwest point of the island, about two and 
a half miles from shore. 

Immediatelv after strikinof the brio- connnenced 



228 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

to fill, and the pumps were put to work. Land- 
ing on the west side was impracticable, but under 
the southwest point a bight makes in to a smooth 
beach, and in westerly or northerly weather it 
afibrds a very good anchorage. In southerly 
weather no vessel can remain there in safety. 
Immediately on getting under the lee of the 
island a portion of the crew was set to breaking 
out tli€ cargo, and the remainder worked the 
pumps. In getting the goods ashore, valuable 
assistance was rendered by the Nunivak Indians 
or their squaws, for the men, like all other sav- 
ages of their sex, can afford to despise work. 
Discharging cargo continued till the 23d, the 
men having been kept at it da}' and night, on 
which date, evervthins: of value beins: landed, 
the vessel was abandoned, and she soon sank 
in the sand. The ship's company consisted of 
twelve persons, all told, including Mr. Barker, 
the supercargo. 

After securing the cargo the castaways turned 
to and housed themselves and the goods. Hav- 
ing had a lot of lumber in the ship for East 
Cape, they took scantling enough for a frame and 
boards for flooring. The frame being covered 
with sails sti'ipped from the sunken vessel, Avhich 
had been run in as far as possible and beached, 
they succeeded in making a canvas house. 



A WRECK. 229 

At that time there was deep snow upon the 
ground and the weather w^as quite cold, so two 
stoves were put up in the house. All of the 
finer goods were kept in this structure, where 
all the hands lived ; but the less valuable and 
less perishable part of the cargo, except bulky 
articles, were stowed away in casks and barrels. 
Here in this canvas house, on an island seldom 
if ever visited by ships or civilized beings, sur- 
rounded by the lowest of barbarians, though a 
peaceful people, with whom they could not 
exchange an intelligent word, the men of the 
lost vessel all lived for two months, and some 
of them lono^er. 

The Indians of Nunivak subsist on venison 
and fish, wliich they eat raw, and clothe them- 
selves in deerskin coats or parkies and seal- 
skin pantaloons. They live in low, earthen 
huts, with underground communications, and, 
as a result of this sort of life, are subject to 
coughs, asthma, and lung diseases generally. 
They know nothing of the white man nor his 
ways, but, on seeing the sailors cooking, tried the 
experiment in an almost crude way, eating some 
half-roasted, half-burned walrus meat as a culi- 
nary experiment. They knew nothing of bread 
before the arrival of the shipwrecked sailors, 
but ate it eagerly when it was oftered them. 



230 A TRIP TO ALAISKA. 

Anything with the savor of salt in it they reject- 
ed with signs of repugnance. 

The Indians brought in venison whenever it 
was wanted, giving a quarter for a box of per- 
cussion caps or a little tobacco. They use old- 
fashioned niuzzle-loadino- ouns obtained from 
Indian traders, who cross over from the mainland 
on the ice. In addition to deerskins they have 
some red foxes, the skins shown, however, being 
of inferior quality, probably rejected by the 
mainland Indians, who act as agents in many 
parts of Northern Alaska for the companies 
which control the fur trade from Cook's Inlet 
to the Arctic. 

About fifty yards from the house of the ship- 
wrecked party was a village containing forty or 
fifty Indian men, women, and children. The 
men were almost constant!}' about the white men's 
camp, but the women only came at intervals. 
When the crew were engaged getting the cargo 
ashore, the squaws assisted them under orders 
from the men, who had their orders from the 
chief. After the work was completed the squaws 
disappeared, and were never seen again except 
for a few days at a time. 

Some time after abandoning the ])rig the chief 
of the village took sick, and although he received 
every attention that the whites could render (for 



A WRECK. 231 

he had been very friendly with them), he died. 
The corpse was not cold before the Indians 
wrapped it, tying the arms and legs so as to keep 
the body in a sitting posture, and carried it to a 
sort of cairn, or pile of stones, where it was set 
up on a floor or foundation and covered with 
loose rocks. All the chiefs personal property, 
even to a Malacca cane given him by the whites, 
was deposited Avith the body. As soon as that 
ceremony had been performed, the oldest widow 
in the village tore the parka and pantaloons 
from the late chief's widow and threw them, along 
with the other property, ui)on the pile that marks 
his departure for that southern clime to which 
the wild geese fly in the fall, according to the 
belief of the Indians along that part of the 
coast. 

Nunivak is a cold, cheerless place, ice remain- 
ing in the little stream near the village all sum- 
mer, as the castaways were given to understand. 
Ice is the great preservative among these In- 
dians, their only mode of keeping meat, which 
is killed when fattest, in the winter, being to 
freeze it. Codfish and smelts are plentiful about 
the island, and salmon of the finest quality are 
taken in the little stream near the village. As 
soon as spring weather sets in, the men of Xuni- 
vak bathe freely, ])ut the women are represented 



232 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

as beinof most filthy, never indulfjint; in such 
nonsense as the bath. The island is almost con- 
stantly enveloped in fog, so far as is known to 
the sailors ; and it is altogether a fair sample 
of Alaska, though there are a few more attract- 
ive spots, perhaps, and a great many more too 
much like it. 

Amonof the officers of the " Timandra " ^vas 
Mr. Beresford, first mate and navigating officer. 
As soon as everything that could he done after 
abandoning the brig had been accomplished, he 
set about making arrangements to get away be- 
fore winter should set in and shut him off from 
all hope of seeing civilization again that year. 
He proposed that Captain Thomas should make 
an effort to reach the Kuskoquim, but the cap- 
tain, unacquainted with the people there, did 
not appear to relish the idea of venturing out 
to take the chances of landing among worse sav- 
ages on the mainland than those met upon the 
island. It was determined, however, to build a 
large boat, if possible, with which purpose in 
view work was commenced by laying a keel, cut 
from the main boom of the brig, for a five-ton 
craft. Cask staves were used for knees, and a 
stem and stern post constructed of the ship's rail. 
Lumber from the cargo was taken for planking, 
but owing to a want of steaming fiicilities it did 



A WRECK. 233 

not work veiy well, as spruce does not bend 
readily, except under more favorable circum- 
stances than those attending the shipwrecked 
mariners on Nunivak. A boiler, originally 
constructed for trying blubber on board the 
vessel, was used for steaming the planking, 
but the boards broke more frequently than they 
bent. It was a question, too, whether, even 
if the boat were once planked, she could be 
caulked and made water-tight. So, about the 
20th of June, bavins: been at the work for 
three weeks, it was given up. 

Then the mate went to work on another 
scheme. He built up the dingy, or ship's boat, 
about six inches on the sides, decking her over, 
leaving only a sort of coxswain's box aft, and 
concluded to go in search of relief. He stepped 
a foremast, and shipped a jibboom, took in his 
chronometer, sextant, a ship's compass, and ten 
days' provisions. The first and second mates, 
and two men, one of them sick, went aboard 
this craft, so small that only two could remain 
up at a time, the others being required to lay 
beneath tlie deckino- in order to afford room for 
steering and handling the sails. jNIr. Beresford 
set his course for Onalaska, leaving Nunivak 
July 26, for a four-hundred mile voyage. 

On the first and second days he got observa- 



234 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

tions, ])ut after that the fog shut out everything, 
till on the 30th of July he made land. AVhile 
pulling along to find out if the place were in- 
habited, he saw a vessel l)ecahned, and, board- 
ing her, he found himself upon the deck of the 
schooner ^'St. George," of the Alaska Commer- 
cial Company. The shipwrecked sailors were 
directed to the entrance of Onalaska harl)or, 
which they readily made, and thus in four days 
they had sailed four hundred miles in an open 
boat, and were where they could hope for relief 
for their companions cast away on Nunivak. 

This voyage from Nunivak direct to Onalaska 
in four days was extraordinary, as a storm would 
have swamped the boat, and if she had struck one 
of the common cross-currents, often encountered 
in Behring Sea, she might have been carried a 
hundred miles out of her course before the fog 
lifted. A continued calm of ten days before he 
started, a favoring breeze the entire distance, 
and a thorough knowledge of his business, car- 
ried the mate and his companions through in 
safety. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



CONCLUSION. 



n^HE reader who may have considered the 
-■- subjects treated of in the foregoing pages 
will not find much in them to encourage him to 
seek a home in Alaska. To an impartial ob- 
server it would seem wricked to suggest enn'gra- 
tion from any part of the United States to a 
land the coast lines of which are characterized 
by snow, rain, and fog to such an extent as to 
almost entirely preclude the ripening of any 
sort of vegetables suitable for man's food, and 
the interior of which, so far as known, is largely 
composed of ice-water bogs in summer and 
frozen lakes for eioht out of the twelve months 
in the year. Plainly, so far as I could see or 
hear, Alaska is as illy adapted to grazing as to 
farming purposes. The climate is against either 
of those industries, and though the possil)ility 
of a family's existence by farming or cattle 
raising in Alaska is not denied, its practicability 
is doubted. Certainly a more comfortable live- 

235 



236 A TRIP TO ALASKA. 

lihood may be gained in any of the States or 
Territories, as they are known and understood, 
than in Alaska. The timber resources of Alaska 
are limited l)oth in quantit}^ and quality, al- 
though this fact is not generally believed. Coal 
has been found, ])ut in an undeveloped condition. 
The precious metals are reported in rich depos- 
its from time to time, but statistics of bullion 
shipments from Alaska have no existence, and 
there is little doubt that up to the present time 
more money has been expended by deluded 
prospectors in outfits than has ever been dug 
out of the earth or crusted in the rock of that 
vast region. There are plent}^ of tish in Alaska, 
and opportunities still remain for the location of 
salmon-curing establishments. It will probably 
be made evident in a short time that the Alaska 
salmon are superior to any caught so far south 
as the Columbia River. 

The question of a form of government for 
Alaska is receiving considerable attention, and 
it appears that some Congressional action in this 
direction must soon be perfected. For this 
purpose it would seem to be desirable that the 
Territory should be divided, and a simple form 
of government provided where it is needed — and 
where only it would be practical at present — in 
that portion from ]\lount St. Elias to Cape Fox. 



COKCLmiON. 237 

Any attempt to enforce and keep up a Territo- 
rial form of government throughout the remain- 
der of that vast region would probably result in 
failure for years to come. In any event, no 
farmer, mechanic, or small trader who can gain 
a livelihood in any other State or Territory 
ought to risk his happiness in Alaska. 



C. J. Peters & Son, Electrotypers, Boston. 














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